Monday 30 October 2017

The Violence Continues: Killing the Future (Part 2)

No, unfortunately it isn't over. Believe me when I say I want to move on.

Today is Friday, 27 October 2017. At least one child has died as a result of abuse and neglect since my last post. A child dies as a result of abuse and neglect every three days. Like the five-year-old boy whose father was released from prison after beating him the first time. Let that sink in.

Meanwhile, 10 year old Chanelle McCrawl from Manenberg was raped by her uncle and his friend and dumped in a ditch where her grandmother found her a day later, neck broken.

Pretend your mind is quicksand.

***

I witnessed this over the weekend; a little boy about 2 or 3 years of age lagging a few meters from his mother holding his newborn sibling. She only turns around because she is already half way across the street. As if she expected him to be walking next to her she starts shouting: “Now I am gonna fucken moer you, he don’t listen…”

She walks back over the road still shouting.

“Must I hit you?”

Must I hit you?”

And as undisciplined, neglected children do, he starts screaming. A high pitched shrill after each threat.

“I’m gonna hit you!”

“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh”

“Nogie eens pak gekry nie ma jy huil…”

“aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh”

You’re probably still wondering why I've referred to him as ‘undisciplined’ and ‘neglected’.  I don’t see anything wrong with spanking your children. I just don’t see that as discipline. I have never hit my daughter, but she is well aware of what acceptable behavior is and why.

Now imagine what that kid goes through at home if his mother treats him this way in the street. Another thing I have seen; these kids live on properties where there are up to four or more separate families living. Running around barely clothed or dressed in dirty, raggedy hand-me-downs.

At least wipe his nose!

The moment he does something he shouldn't have done – because he doesn't know any better – you want to beat him to a pulp because he 'don't listen.’ What was there to listen to in the first place when he was never told that a specific action is wrong? What was there to listen to when all he hears are the words ‘lollie’,’tjoef’,’jou ma se…’ (Most mothers say this to their own children) and the clinking of Black Label bottles every time you skarreled a kroon.

Stop making laities. Please. You know you are broke and struggling. Stop at number one. Or don’t start at all. Out of all the things that the government does not provide, you have access to FREE condoms (they are flavored now) and other methods of contraception for females.

You might not have (a) CHOICE anymore, but you have Max. And since you like free shit like SASSA you can definitely do with a Max. DO IT with Max. Same goes for Dumper Mommies.

This may be a typical case on the Flats. But not all murdered children come from poor homes. The biggest cause of death for children under the age of five is either as a result of abuse or being dumped. Wrapped and dumped like the baby who was sniffed out by dogs or the frozen body of an infant found in Strand earlier this month.

And this while mothers who give birth at 27 weeks or less have no rights and have to refer to their children as “Medical Waste” – yes, they get DUMPED too. However, “Would you like to keep your placenta?”

Anyway, ranting aside. Let’s conclude;

On the one hand parents have to work and earn a living for their kids and risk that they may come home to hear that the child is missing and inevitably murdered by the neighbor or boarder. And on the other hand we have parents abusing their children to the point that they eventually kill them or they go out with the trash.

In essence, we live in a country where we can neither keep our children safe inside or outside.

The so-called future is fading.

We as a people are failing.

Pretend your mind is a doekie and wrap it around that.


Tuesday 24 October 2017

For South Africans by a South African (and every light – hie on the Flats)

Sometimes I am ashamed to be South African,
Ashamed to be Capetonian,
A laaitie from the Flats,
Tryina be a light - hie on the Flats.

I live in a country where the unemployment rate
affects half the working age,
Where we burn down our resources to express our rage.

I live in a city where neighbourhoods are riddled with more bullets than jobs.
Where gangsters walk hand in hand with the cops.

I live on the Cape Flats and these aren’t fake facts.
My people die every day - no protection but Zuma still takes tax.


Sometimes I am ashamed to be South African.
Ashamed to be Capetonian,
Emotionally bled out and evident in our acts
Watching the death of the light – hie(s) on the flats

I live in a country where corruption and greed precede,
Where greed is like meat and those who don't steal can't eat.

I live in a city where the blood of the innocent flows freely,
Where taking the life of another comes easily.


I live on the Cape Flats where life’s a race,
Rats killing each other,
Feeding fat cats,
while the son of a mother
weeps and wears black.


Sometimes I am ashamed to be South African.
Ashamed to be Capetonian,
But I'ma custodian
Protecting my light - hie on the Flats.


- Distressed Citizen

Friday 20 October 2017

The Violence Continues: Killing the Future (Part 1)

My last post about violence was mainly based on gangsterism. I didn’t go into a lot of detail because that post was initially a part of a bigger piece that all seemed a bit too much like my afro when the South Easter gets a hold of it, deumeka.

Cape Town is the 13th most violent city in the WORLD with places like Nelson Mandela Bay and Durban ranking 43rd and 50th respectively. What bothers me the most is how this affects our children.  They are not only constantly surrounded by it but are most often the victims of violence. Our children are being killed every day. Innocent lives stripped away without a second thought. They are supposed to be the future, the tomorrow of this country but what kind of future is there for South Africa when 900 children were killed between 2015 and 2016 alone? Over the past decade almost 10 000 children have been murdered.

There is nowhere safe, they are not protected. If we don’t find them dumped in plastic bags, sewerage pipes or toilets, we find them raped and mutilated in an open field or shallow grave. Their bodies are burnt with tyres. They are strangled or their throats are slit. They are disemboweled. They are stuffed in fridges. Branches get shoved down their throats.

Sends a chill down your spine doesn't it? You picture that happen to a child. YOUR child. You shudder at the mere thought.
***

I am honestly beyond the point where we blame drugs and poverty for the violence in the country. That’s a lame excuse -and maybe because I don’t get it.  Unemployed? So is half of our working age. But why do some people find that their desperation is worth hurting others?

I am a believer in being conscious – and I don’t just mean ‘awake’. I mean CONSCIOUS.

No matter how drunk you are or how high you are at SOME point, you know what you are doing. You somehow know how to find yourself home and passed out on your bed dik gesuip. You somehow know how to drive a car, you somehow know how to lure, rape and kill a child. You are in your right mind. You need to take some kind of responsibility.  If you have too much of a drug, you overdose. And although your judgment is compromised, it doesn't mean that you don’t know what are you are doing is wrong.

Besides, most people are perfectly sober when they kill a defenseless child.  Mortimer Saunders was only tired when he fed rat poison to Courtney Pietersen.  The ex-boyfriend of Kaithlyn Wilson’s mother was definitely sober when he killed her out of spite.  What about Jeremiah Ruiters? Was Ameeruddien Peters high or drunk when he raped the 18 month old after beating and stabbing him?

Then I am trying to wrap my ahead the unemployment thing. Devil’s work for idle hands? Are you that bored? Don’t get me wrong. I know what it is like to be broke and unemployed – at the same time. But how does killing a child that is unable to fight back make you feel better about your situation? How does it SOLVE your problem?

If the temporary high of raping and killing children is what unemployed people are going to be chasing then we will soon have a lot of serial killers on our hands.

I cringe every time my daughter leaves the house. I sit at work and wonder if she is safe, hope that she is safe, pray that she is safe. 

But is it enough?

Is our outrage enough? Are we doing enough?

We say ‘enough’ is ‘enough’ – but is it?

Enough of the future. 


It’s dying.

Sunday 15 October 2017

A gangwar a day keeps the government away. Stry, Bullet.

 How many stray bullets does it take to kill an innocent bystander?

Just one.

(Clearly, our men are aimless. And the pun isn't me poking fun at a serious situation.)

How many mothers have had to bury their children? Regardless of age, how many of them have had to bury their children as a direct cause of gang wars on the Flats?

Baby Zhania, Aqeel Davids and Zinadene Pelton to name a FEW. Ashline Telmarks survived but she might never walk again.

66 children have been killed in the Western Cape so far this year with most of them dying as a result of gang violence. That’s an average of 8 children a month.  See if you can wrap your head around that. Do you know 8 children?

Communities live in constant fear of their lives; you don’t even have to leave the house. Aqeel Davids was sitting in his lounge. And all because gangs are at war with each other over who gets to screw over the people on the Flats. The very communities they were brought up in. Fighting over ‘territory’, revenge and retaliation… but can’t even hit their intended target.

(I don’t believe that anyone truly OWNS land. It’s not yours, was never yours, and was here before you arrived- you’re a borrower)

What I don’t understand is how when gang bosses own so much already; taxi’s, franchises, night clubs and a list of things I am not mentioning – these kids are still running the streets killing each other –or trying to. Putting innocent lives at risk and killing others in the crossfire so they can ‘own’ an area. Anyone who tries to open up a business gets extorted. Your tuck-shop isn’t exempt; you need to pay 'tax'.

TAX?!

To protect me from YOU?

Yes.

And I have seen the cops stop at the merchant to pick up their tax. The generosity goes both ways; police ‘kernels’ sell guns to gangsters and only get 18 years in prison for contributing to the deaths of countless people on the Flats because he wanted to make some cash.

How do we put an end to this madness when it has gone this far? We talk about how us 90s kids used to play in the road and how today’s kids have cellphones and tablets.  But they can’t even play in the street without having to run in every time the shots ring. I honestly couldn't distinguish the sound of a gunshot until a few months ago. I’m 28. How ironic… 28.

I was in Bonteheuwel and it was 10:30 on a weekday.  Clap..clap..clap… the only thing that confirmed it for me: Immediately after I heard the shots a mother called in her children who were already running inside. Someone got hit and it wasn't the target.

 Prison has for a long time not been a solution. That’s the Head Quarters. Laptops and KFC, DSTV and R35000 salaries while incarcerated. Lest we forget the strippers: A Youth Day ‘treat’.  A modern day Gangster’s Paradise. But what do you expect the toilet to look like if the ‘cabinet’ is dirty? The ministers are either splurging the country’s money or going to prison and still getting paid with the country’s money. Our President had over 700 criminal charges against him yet he still gets to spend R6 million of the country’s money on erecting a statue with his face on it.

Money that could have been used to fund the gang units that were discussed 3 years ago. 

It seems that our people were dumped here just to be forgotten and abandoned despite who is in power.  Will the Flats ever be rid of gangsterism and violence?

Before you answer, remember:

#YOURlivesdontmatter


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