EDITOR – Recently after having enjoyed breakfast at a popular beach restaurant, we encountered a young man with reddish hair and scruffy facial growth, sitting outside the entrance on the pavement.
He looked at us with an extremely sad expression and promptly lifted his eyes and hands in prayer.
Feeling very moved at this pathetic sight, we spoke to him. He informed us that he lived in a tent with his mother further along the beach. His father had died and he was unable to go to school because he did not have decent clothes and that scholars laughed at him. We parted with R100 and went looking for the tent which was non-existent. Instead I noticed the young man, now away from his post, handing money to a mean-looking man, who then sprinted across the car park to a presumably waiting white van, in which he was hastily driven away.
On speaking to other loiterers, they informed us that he was part of a drug gang. Staff members at the establishment and a security guard outside told us that police had several times been informed about this matter, without much success of the culprit being punished or removed permanently.
It is scary to know that drugs are supplied so easily along the beachfront.
SCARY AND SAD
