Two days after I arrived back from South Sudan, the worst war zone in Africa, I heard that 17-year-old peace ambassador Riedwaan Samuels was shot four times.
Four weeks ago, peace ambassador Keagan De Silver, also 17, was shot five times and died.
Each bullet fired multiplies existing trauma in our communities and amplifies the vulnerability of our children. Riedwaan and Keagan symbolise a renewed call for sustainable peace to prevail.
Our expectation was that post-apartheid constitutional democracy would usher in a period of peace, but this has not happened. Fear and death stroll freely within community war zones, with no meaningful protection from the authorities.
The political leadership need to recognise the necessity to engage across ideological lines to bring peace to Cape Flats communities, drowning in rivers of blood.
Context: “83% of all gang-related murders in South Africa are in the Western Cape”
(September 2018: 2017/2018 - SAPS”). SAPS identified 26 gang activity police precincts in the Western Cape, and 23 are on the Cape Flats.
“The Cape Flats is the most violent area in South Africa where organised non-state armed groups operate with impunity and exercise power over the lives of millions of people.”
This quote is from a June 26, 2018 Cape Argus article written by me. We who live on the Cape Flats and in historically apartheid segregated communities have never known peace. Violence has been with us since the days of apartheid and into a post-apartheid period.
Iraq and Afghanistan are within the top five most dangerous countries on earth according to the latest global peace index.
Comparative statistics from a brutal theatre of war illustrates the tragic nature of our circumstances:
1. 6800, is the total of US soldiers killed in two full blown wars; 14 years (2001-2015) in Afghanistan and 12 years in Iraq (2003-2015).
2. 7140 murders, over a two year reporting period, in the Western Cape (2016/17 and 2017/18).
3. 30769 murders over a 10 year period in the Western Cape, (2008-2018)
The country is a war zone where just under 200000 people were murdered (2008-2018). Statistics for the same periods, exclude other forms of violence, general criminality and law breaking. If we apply those statistics, to the same period then the canvass of violence becomes more frighteningly apparent.
Nature of the violence:
The political economy of the differentiated civil war trade relationships is based on illegal activities which require expanding markets to service the commercial interests of war lords.
One armed group of citizens are in constant war against other groups of armed citizens to control the political economies of urbanised communities and regions.
The political control and governance of these geographic zones determine their power and influence. Underground economies are able to flourish.
Thousands are employed in a web of undocumented industries linked to criminal activities.
Career criminals are cultivated to form part of an underworld of commerce and industry.
Legitimate businesses are established with laundered money.
Laws of supply and demand form an integral part of this illicit economy and we have parallel systems of human resource activities in place to support the violence.
There is a permanent war to control lucrative economic spaces in communities and regions of the country. Each of these non-state armed groups requires children as a necessary part of their paramilitaries.
Child Soldiers: It is no longer credible to deny the existence of child soldiers on the Cape Flats and elsewhere. Children are being actively recruited on a regular basis and groomed as killers.
Non-state armed groups have command structures, and they provide sustenance to families who benefit from their patronage.
All of these armed groups fundamentally oppose the rule of law and they undermine all state institutions on the ground.
New thinking needed: While there are selective victories, these have not been able to fundamentally alter the balance of forces in such a way that communities have become safe spaces. The impotence of the state, at national, provincial and local level has deadly consequences for the citizens and residents.
The SA National Defence Force must be deployed in a supportive capacity to law enforcement agencies. A special court system should be considered for those who are processed.
A fundamental rethink is needed by all levels of government and civil society, which includes possible amnesties for non-state armed groups.
Amnesty via a healing, truth and reconciliation process ought to be considered as one of the strategies in an arsenal of options to contain the violence.
Amnesty is not perfect a process but it has the possibility to break the cycle of endemic violence that has its roots in an oppressive history.
A new dawn is possible but not with the current set of policies and strategies.
* Brian Williams - visiting professor in fields of peace, mediation, labour relations at the University of the Sacred Heart, Uganda.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.