But it would take a government with insight and compassion to implement the necessary remedies Sometimes, as a journalist, the sadness that follows the information you seek is almost unbearable. The story in question was to get to the root of Cape gangs. And there was time: two years. That's a long while to research a single topic - a chance you seldom get. With that sort of time you inevitably go beneath the skin of daily journalism and the epidermis of weeklies to muscle and bone. Down that deep came a discovery: gangs are merely a symptom of a profoundly disturbing youth problem that's getting worse. [continues 1235 words]
Gang Town, the City Press Tafelberg Nonfiction Award-winning book by Don Pinnock, is being released this month and is a comprehensive and relatable look at gangsterism on the Cape Flats. This edited extract looks at how the international 'war on drugs' means a war on our youth that need not be happening. Gang Town by Don Pinnock Tafelberg 280 pages R225 Cape Town has a youth drug problem that's out of control. It's possible to fix it, but it will need a government with both insight and guts. Drugs largely drive Cape Town's stratospheric levels of interpersonal violent crime. Users rob and steal to get them, gangs murder to retain their sales turf and drug lords hold neighbourhoods in thrall by violence. There is a solution to this, but it would take a brave and resolute government to implement it. [continues 1310 words]
