Government is not doing enough to tackle gang and drug crimes on the Cape Flats so communities have to act, writes Fadiel Adams.
Cape Town - I listened to a popular radio show this morning which claims at least one person is shot in Mitchells Plain every day.
Either the presenter has his information skewed or Mitchells Plain gangsters have terrible aim.
I live in Lentegeur, a suburb within this vast concrete jungle. I hear at least six gunshots in my area a day. I know of four people who have lost their children in this cowardly manner.
The reality for us is the fact your wife may get mugged by a crazed tik addict on her way to the bus stop, which may be metres from her house.
Your schoolchildren may be mugged (as they try to duck bullets) on their way to school, then your loved ones have the journey home to look forward to.
National government lacks either the political will or the know-how to make a difference. I suspect it does not care, I dare say it seeks to punish us for rejecting the ANC at the polls.
The DA, albeit with limited means, does not achieve much more.
When bullets are flying, the metro police are to be seen writing traffic fines on the Camps Bay beaches.
Apparently if your parents are poor and your address isn’t prestigious, your life holds little to no value.
Our community cannot be absolved of this mess; all of us need to own a part. These gangsters/drug addicts are, after all, our neighbours, nephews and sons.
We can no longer allow these degenerates to hold us hostage while they create mayhem treating our areas as their personal fiefdom.
Trouble is, you can’t reason with this animal. His mind is filled with anger, with hatred, with number lore.
And then you have to deal with the law, designed to protect not me, the tax-paying, law-abiding citizen, but the bully, the killer, the convicted drug peddler who is serving a suspended sentence because the court feels that after three offences he deserves another chance.
We need a Cape Flats solution for a Cape Flats problem. Ceasefires and the like have borne few tangible results.
The coloured people are sick of burying our best, tired of burying our future. Seeing as no political party seeks to earn our vote, we should think of not giving it away.
* Fadiel Adams is from the Cape Coloured Civic Movement, Lentegeur.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
Cape Argus