Sam Nape writes
We were not born criminals. The community conditioned us to be labeled, called and isolated as criminals when some of us had passion dreams as lawyers, judges, priest, professors who could have been called community builders because of our God-given talents.
We now find ourselves cursed, castrated, and harassed with dry bones, sulky smiles, excommunicated from a group of community achievers. This rich city of eMalahleni has given birth to poor emancipated heirs who will never enjoy its five star hotels, game parks, casinos, its biggest dam enjoyed by any municipality which we will never set our foot on as community outcasts.
We hate this community which calls us unemployed even if it is not our fault. We sit hand folded with our skills from local colleges and our grade 12 collecting dust at home whilst the industry and commercial gates are wide opened to the retrenched and early pensioned comrades whilst we face a barbwire as new entrants. They see us as prospective criminals. We never had an inborn culture of stealing when our mothers caressed us as beautiful babies.
We hate this community which focuses on us by using different spectacles to judge us. We are the proletariat, not good to be sports achievers with Bafana-Bafana or world rugby cup idols. Not good enough to own those mansions around eMalahleni’s effluent and elite communities. Not good enough to drive that flashy open coupe owned by our schoolmates who turned overnight entrepreneurs.
Sam Nape cycling to drug abusers instead of a police van.
We hate this community which sneaks around our hideouts to alert the police who will come, mishandle, kick, make us face the brick wall to be searched or lie down on the ground whilst we try to rid off this daily boredom we go through. Searching us for substance abuse and nyaope is what they target whereas we will be happy if someone will come and bust us out to the nearest job site opening, nearest skills development program or the nearest sports development coach rather than idle here like people with leprosy.
We hate this community which corrodes our self-esteem and integrity. But to avoid this harsh criticism as non-achievers in life, we will do nothing, we will say nothing, and we are nothing. We cannot afford beautiful and expensive cell phones. We envy those flat plasmas and bulgy wallets and purses when we all live in one city, which must provide for all of us. We want to get married and have families. We want RDP houses and to be responsible parents. Being chased around by the police is a vicious circle of community road shows. Failure to any intervention will lead us to final act of suicide and the community will bare the blame for not addressing societal ills prevalent in every corner of eMalahleni.
We hate this community which think only the police will disentangle us from the bondage of drugs and alcohol when a visit by local priests, local educators, local business drivers, local medical and professional entities of this community, those who will arrange a détente with less myopia to unveil our frustrations. Change and impact the face of this eMalahleni our parents brought us into with vigor and possessiveness.
We hate the community that in turn hates us. Come and read our CVs. On our first day on this world we were labeled clever boys and girls. At kindergarten our caretakers and the priest cheered us when we were baptized. We went through Sunday school and were labeled God’s children and encouraged to hate the devil and his diabolic acts on mankind. No one saw us as future drug addicts or spotted hidden dops of nyaope in our napkins.
A police raid on youth of eMalahleni.
Our plea to the concerned eMalahleni society, truly terrorized by our despicable acts of crime, is to aspire to inspire us before they expire, lest we become habitual criminals unwittingly mentored by this same community.
We hate this community in its pessimistic approach to societal demagogues. Our little hope still lingers around our dreams and believes if the community will do their part, we will vacate all these daily street corner meetings and be productive community members. They say (we confirm this too) eMalahleni is number two in South Africa on drug abuse. It’s nothing to be proud of unless it comes with an award. They refer to the community, not ourselves, we are only helpless and defenseless victims in this drug polluted and infested society.
We hate our retailers. When will they plough back to their clients to sustain their operations? Even if we find ourselves in illegal trades of drugs and proliferation of illegal substances, we are legal bonafides of eMalahleni entitled to protection and normal human life away from the irresistible drugs.
The challenge is now with the eMalahleni community, its executive mayor and administration, but not with us as vulnerable victims.
