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CAPE TOWN, Dec 5 (AFP) - South Africa's Muslim-led anti-drugs group PAGAD warned that it would use "all means possible" to "remove" corrupt policemen, politicians and businessmen. People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD) has been privately linked by police to the spate of bombings in the Cape Town area, including last Sunday's pipe-bombing of a beachfront pizzeria in which 48 people were injured. "Our people are ready to give our lives," PAGAD national coordinator Abdul Salam Ibrahim told a public meeting in Kleinvlei, a mixed-race suburb near Cape Town. "We are going to fight hard. We are going to fight corrupt cops, corrupt politicians and corrupt businessmen. We are going to remove them by all means possible," he said. He told the crowd of about 100 supporters that PAGAD was prepared to "kill any drug dealer and any [drug] merchant." Asked to confirm whether the group's intention to "remove" corrupt people meant killing them, Ibrahim said: "No comment." When pressed, he said PAGAD did not intend to plant bombs in public places, including restaurants. "We never had bombings of restaurants on our agenda," he said. He admitted, however: "Some of our people will take the law into their own hands." The group condemned Sunday's bombing at the St Elmo's pizza restaurant at tourist-popular Camp's Bay. Ibrahim's address to the meeting was punctuated by chants of "Kill the gangsters, kill," and "One merchant one bullet." Last year, some 79 pipe-bombs were detonated in and around Cape Town, most of them targeting police stations, the homes of gang leaders and various businesses. Police have stepped up security in the city following the bombing of the pizzeria and a blast at a gay bar on November 6 and ahead of the summer holidays, when thousands of people will visit the area.
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