Alleged JFK Hit Squad Walk Free on Bail
CCN Reporter – George April
Cape Town:- Two weeks after gunmen stormed a gathering on Blode Street in Lavender Hill and opened fire, leaving five people dead and three fighting for their lives, the suspects allegedly linked to the attack are back on the streets.
Community sources and local reports identify the four as members of the Junk Funky Kids (JFK) hit squad. They were reportedly caught red-handed less than 24 hours later at Capricorn Circle (near Sunrise Circle, Muizenberg area) with the “hot pieces” and extended magazines still in their possession. Police had responded swiftly after the 24 October 2026 attack, in which four men and one woman aged 21–33 were killed at the scene and three others wounded. A survivor later described playing dead in a dirt bin while the gunmen stepped over him.
Yet, in what has become a familiar Cape Flats pattern, the four are out on bail and walking the same streets in Lavender Hill, Steenberg, Retreat and Capricorn.
The bigger picture
Lavender Hill and surrounds have long been a JFK stronghold. The gang has a documented history of deadly turf wars with rivals such as the Flakka Kids, drive-by shootings, and high-profile convictions. One of the gang’s known figures, Jason “Fabulous” Arendse, remains in custody on separate Schedule 6 charges including attempted murder and illegal firearm possession. Community voices on the ground say orders still flow from prison cells while the foot soldiers return to the blocks.
This is not an isolated failure. The same justice system that hands life sentences after years of delays (as seen in previous JFK murder convictions) repeatedly grants bail to suspects caught with illegal firearms and extended magazines linked to mass shootings.
The result is predictable: the body count keeps rising while residents live in fear.
These are not “suspects” in the abstract
When men are arrested with the weapons used in a massacre that wiped out a roomful of people, and then walk free within days, the message to the Cape Flats is clear. The courts treat mass murder as a revolving-door inconvenience rather than an existential threat to communities. Extended magazines are not for self-defence. They are for wiping out gatherings. And the people who carry them are now free to do it again.
Accountability when the system fails
Fabulous may issue orders from behind bars, but these four are the ones who allegedly pulled the triggers.
If the courts will not keep them locked up, the community is left with one hard truth: we are on our own.
Residents in Lavender Hill, Steenberg, Retreat and Capricorn are being asked to keep their eyes open and refuse to forget the faces. Gangsters do not fear a justice system that hands them get-out-of-jail-free cards. They fear a community that refuses to look away, that keeps the spotlight burning, and that documents every release.
- The faces are known.
- The receipts are logged.
- The five dead cannot speak, but the living still can.
Keep watching. Keep naming. Keep refusing to accept that mass killers belong on our streets.
#CapeTownNews #LavenderHill #CapeFlats #JFK #JusticeFailed
