Johnny will never forget March, 14, 2012. It was the day he found out he was going to be released from Pollsmoor Prison under the presidential remission programme, after serving only three months of his 12 months sentence.
But Johnny’s jubilation was short-lived – the very same day he was released he found himself back where he started – on the streets and smoking tik.
“At first I couldn’t believe they were really going to let us go. I mean… why would the president let us thieves go just like that?”
Johnny, 19, said the day they were told they were going home they were all so excited that the fighting inside their cell stopped.
“It didn’t matter that we belonged to different gangs. We started talking about what we were going to do outside. I couldn’t wait to eat some chicken… I missed KFC,” Johnny said.
Originally from Namibia, the teenager moved to Cape Town when he was 17 with a friend to look for a better life.
“I grew up at an orphanage. I never knew my parents…South Africa seemed like a good idea at the time.”
After a week of travelling by bus he arrived in Cape Town. With nowhere to go, he and his friend ended up on the streets. A week later they moved to an orphanage in Woodstock.
“When I turned 18 they told me I had to leave as I was old enough to take care of myself. I had no other option but to live on the streets. That’s where everything started going wrong.”
Johnny joined the IDC (I Do Crime) gang and got a tattoo on his left arm to prove his commitment. For a year his life was a haze of drugs, hijackings and robberies.
“Everyday was the same. I woke up. Smoked tik, rock or mandrax… whatever was there and waited for instructions from the big boss. He would tell us what mission we had to complete, what kind of cars we had to steal, which houses to break into, or we had to hijack and rob a money van.”
He said he had made about R1 000 to R2 000 a day.
“Although we were always armed with guns and knives, I never killed anyone… we were skilled in getting people to surrender,” he said.
Last March, Johnny received a three-year suspended sentence after he was arrested for car theft. Eight months later he was sentenced to 12 months in prison for an attempted car break-in.
“I joined the 28s as soon as I arrived as a way to keep me safe. I shared a cell with about 40 people and almost every day there was a fight. Once a fight starts you had nowhere to hide and no choice but to join in.”
He said people fought over simple things like spoons and used whatever was around as weapons.
“Every night you slept with one eye open. You never knew what would happen next.”
The day Johnny was released he was given a train ticket to Woodstock.
“They didn’t ask where I was going or where I would be staying. The same day I went back to smoking tik and spent the night under a bridge. When I woke up the next day I knew if I didn’t get away from the streets I would be back in jail within a month.”
Johnny now stays in an orphanage where he spends his days learning life skills and gardening.
“I am safer here, away from my friends and temptation. If I go back to the streets I will be easily influenced back into crimes and drugs,” he added.
Cape Argus