IN
GUGULETU
THE CHILDREN KNOW...
Article and photos by Elna de Beer
A
Crime Prevention Campaign was held in Guguletu on 26 August 2004, where
learners from six local schools showed that the youth in this area has
first-hand experience of crime and its effects. Their stage was a sports
field with its green grass and their stage light was the warm Cape sun. The
PA system was the loudspeaker of a flying-squad car and the audience, an
appreciative group of police officials, schoolteachers and classmates.
The schools that took part in the day’s activities were Vuyani Primary School, situated in NY58, Andile Primary School from New Crossroads, the I D Mkize High School choir, the drum majorettes of Lwazi Primary School, Xolani Primary School and Storment Madubela, who both presented plays depicting the evils of crime.
The musical performances were spiked with tribal dancing and drumming, and the scintillating display by the majorettes, flags flying in the wind, gave a special meaning to the day. But most impressive of all were the dramatizations which the children carried off with maximum creativity and minimum props.
The
serpentine movement of a moving human train, complete with clicking and
puffing, picking up passengers and dropping them off at their stations as
though this is an everyday occurrence; the piercing shrieks of a woman
robbed of her few worldly possessions; and the wailing of a mother who had
lost her child at the hand of ruthless criminals transcended the barriers of
language, colour and creed. They became the shouts of a nation in pain,
fighting off the affliction of a violence that follows in the wake of a
seemingly bloodless revolution: the long labour preceding the birth of a New
South Africa.
The speakers at the event were Capt Charles Kakudi, Communication Officer of SAPS Guguletu; Mr K Nofomela, the Vice Chairman of Guguletu Sector 1; Mrs Thandi Sokhatsha of Lwazi Primary School (also represents Safer Schools); Mr Ndamandama of Andile Primary School; and Sgt Z A S Nkabi, Sector Manager of Sector 1, Guguletu.
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“We live in a dangerous place, we live |
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