Cape Town – Fadiel Adams isn't someone who does anything in small measures. And small, cosmetic measures isn't what he is seeking from President Cyril Ramaphosa when it comes to putting a stop to the senseless murder and mayhem raging – and worsening – on the Cape Flats.
The activist from the pressure group Gatvol Capetonian is in the third day of a hunger strike outside Parliament. He is prepared to face the full consequences of his actions, even if it results in death.
"I was diagnosed about three years ago as being at a high risk of kidney failure, so I don't have that much time. I'm not taking any food, I am not taking any fluids and my body is in sh*t."
But in a week where the government has had to apologise for the deaths of Tazne van Wyk, 8, from Ravensmead, and Eeman Solomons, 7, from Ocean View, he knows he could easily have been mourning his own daughter's death – with every child daily at risk on the Cape Flats.
"My daughter is safe at home, but today has proven that we aren't really safe anywhere… Tomorrow will surely bring another avoidable death, another parent will break down, and the president may act as if he cares. He doesn't.
"Vigilantism is there because the government has failed us. People they call vigilantes now are mothers and fathers. Who wants to be marching with a scarf around his head 11 o'clock at night.
"Who wants to take the risk of going to prison for something they know is ethically right but technically illegal. This government has failed all of us."
He said he decided on the hunger strike out of desperation.
"Something needs to happen; the president needs to take drastic action. I'm not talking about that rubbish of sending in the army.
"We're talking about sending in the right army: doctors, social workers, the skills developers. Giving our kids the opportunities to become more than just gangsters. That's the action the president needs to take and he needs to take it quickly."
If the worst comes to the worst, he said his daughter "will understand one day" why he undertook the hunger strike.
"I have given her a short explanation of what I am doing. I couldn't tell them the full story. She is 11 years old, a little bit older than Tazne.
"She will not be next. My son is nine, a little bit older than Amirah, We are showing remarkable tolerance here because if this was to happen to one of my kids, things will burn, gangsters, drug dealers, I don't care, things will burn."
Commenting on this week's Budget cuts, which will lead to a reduction of around 4 500 police officers, he said: "Even if they double the police force, while we have a clown who is the minister (of police), nothing will change.
"Zuma was smart enough to get rid of (Bheki) Cele. Cyril re-employed him. It takes a lot to be fired by Jacob Zuma, but Cyril found him fit for duty again.
"Three-thousand people died on the Cape Flats last year and it looks like we are going to beat it this year."
He believes the "government hides behind the constitution", a constitution he believes to be outdated.
"It's 24 years old. It's supposed to be a living document, it's supposed to evolve with our needs. Our needs are not the same as in 1994.
"In 1994 all we wanted was freedom, we have that freedom but guns and gangs have taken it from us."