Time to gang up on gangs

31 March 2014 - 02:08 By Dr EV Rapiti, Mitchells Plain
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NOT CHILD'S PLAY: Rival gangs are all out to make their mark on the violence-riddled Cape Flats. The gun is a toy, but the killings are real
NOT CHILD'S PLAY: Rival gangs are all out to make their mark on the violence-riddled Cape Flats. The gun is a toy, but the killings are real
Image: ESA ALEXANDER

The increasing number of deaths of innocent people as a result of gang violence has turned the Cape Flats into killing fields as gangsters fight for territory.

The cries for help from township residents for the past five years have fallen on the deaf years of politicians and lawmakers, who have chosen to bury their heads in the sand. The politicians have become indifferent to the legitimate cries of the community. People are held hostage in their homes and are killed in the crossfire.

Our police force is ill-equipped, understaffed and demoralised. It is incapable of dealing with open gang warfare in the townships, which are in a state of anarchy.

How else can one describe the situation when children as young as nine display their guns with bravado, ready to kill like miniature Rambos, without any remorse for their victims?

After 20 years of freedom, we have failed, dismally, to keep ordinary citizens safe, which is their constitutional right, and our president dares to say that we live in a much better place? Not every home has the security measures provided at Nkandla.

In the townships, people are killed and robbed in broad daylight in front of their homes, and families are left destitute when the person killed is the breadwinner. Marches, prayers and community police forum meetings have done little to help.

Here are some suggestions to tackle the problem:

  • Bring in the army.
  • Reintroduce the police gang unit.
  • Promoting school children who repeatedly fail must stop because they drop out, frustrated, and join gangs. Children who are not academically inclined and those with learning disorders should be compelled to attend a skills school instead.
  • Teenage girls on drugs should be compelled to be on contraceptives to prevent the abuse of the child grant system and reduce the number of children who end up on the streets due to maternal negligence.
  • Drug education should be made compulsory at primary school level.
  • Medical schools should urgently introduce a module on addiction management to equip doctors to treat drug users and support their families
  • Society must play a proactive role in setting up and running support groups for people with drug addictions.

If we do not invest in our children today, we will pay dearly for this omission when they are adults.

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