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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