The experiences of children on the Cape Flats and in most disadvantaged neighbourhoods are enough to make you want to find a bunker in which to hide them and everyone dear to you.
It is chilling reading the state’s indictment in a second case involving the Terrible Josters, alleging the gang used children, driven by hunger and a need for acceptance, to commit some of its most heinous crimes in Cape Town.
Last week Monday, six members of the gang, including its feared leader, Horatio “Voudie” Solomon, were sentenced to life in prison by the high court in that city for murder, attempted murder, drug dealing and gang activities.
Also in the dock was Ismael Ockerts, described as Solomon’s right-hand man, who was also sentenced to life.
For those children who manage to escape the gang’s tentacles, the danger is still omnipresent. They include Liam Andreas, who was six years old when he was hit by a bullet meant for a gang member. The Terrible Josters’ Fabian Constable was sentenced to 11 years for this shooting.
And, says a community worker who runs an intervention programme, the youngsters are ripe for the picking. The barter price for their souls and, in all probability, lives is as little as a sandwich.
In areas such as Delft, where the gang ruled, hunger tops the list of needs and they fill that aching void with food the one day and a gang tattoo the next.
Ceasefire gang violence intervention programme director Craven Engel said this week: “Here a kid hears an average of 350 gunshots a month. They could witness ... murders and many attempted murders. By the time they go to school at six years old, they’ve seen it all.”
The joy and relief felt by Delft residents after the gang members’ arrests and convictions is finite though. There are many more waiting to fill the vacuum.
Reports are already coming in that rival gangs from other neighbourhoods, such as Elsies River, have started fighting over turf occupied by the weakened Terrible Josters.
Other than hiding in a bunker, which is not an option, where do the children of Delft, Elsies River, Soweto's Eldorado Park or Durban’s Wentworth go?
The latter’s stronghold is in Delft, but its activities stretch across several municipalities, from Paarl to towns such as Kleinmond and Hermanus, along the abalone smuggling route so crucial to SA’s illicit drug economy, Sunday Times Daily reported on Monday.
Other than hiding in a bunker, which is not an option, where do the children of Delft, Elsies River, Soweto’s Eldorado Park or Durban’s Wentworth go?
Life has dealt them the worst of apartheid spatial planning and postapartheid urban development, leaving parents unable to tell their youngsters everything will be fine.
Apartheid planning has also left them bereft of an equal playing field, meaning even if the will is there to get them out of that situation, the means seldom are.
So the stats will keep telling us the same thing. Lack of opportunity and a hand up will keep gangs such as the Terrible Josters in charge. Children will die through gang activities or because they caught a bullet intended for a gangster.
If you today spare a thought for the children, also spare a few for the parents who have to watch as their hopes get assimilated into gangs, something they are powerless to stop because they have been failed by social development, justice and education systems.
In 2020, that is an indictment on government.
