Cape Town’s Grand Parade and station deck in the CBD have become drug havens for school children, say taxi drivers, shopkeepers and security guards working in the area.
While pupils at city schools commute daily, they weave their way between drug dealers who openly offer and sell them drugs. And the youngsters freely admit that whatever their drug of choice, they’ll get it there.
They arrive in numbers after 2pm, according to security guards working in the area, who describe the pupils as “a real headache”.
And the trade is continuing unabated, even though police spokesman Warrant Officer November Filander said the Cape Town central police arrest about 180 suspects every month for possession of and dealing in drugs.
In addition, he said, regular integrated and clandestine operations were held on the station deck and the Grand Parade, “with good success”.
Amanda, a 17-year-old pupil at a city high school, told Weekend Argus this week that tik and unga were “very easy” to get in the area.
“You just know who to go to, and there’s no way that they will not have it. It all happens here at the Parade. Sometimes it’s a matter of sitting down at the bus terminus, as if you’re waiting for a bus, and the dealer will come and you do the exchange.”
She arrived by bus about 9am, smoked for about an hour, then went on to school.
“If you tell them [at school] the bus was late there’s no way they won’t let you in,” she said, explaining that she and seven friends clubbed together to buy cocktails, a mixture of unga and dagga, which they smoked daily.
“My grandmother gives me R50 for the week. My friends and I club together and one of the boys goes to buy for us. We either smoke and go to school, or we just roam around town trying to get more money to buy more,” Amanda said, adding that she began smoking unga when she was in Grade 8.
Another city school pupil, 18-year-old Keagan, said he became hooked after being given a “special cigarette”
by a dealer.
“It’s very addictive. They just call school children and say ‘come look’. The next thing you know you’re the one calling them.
“It’s quick to buy, and you don’t feel like the dealers want to hurt you because it all happens in public,” he said.
Taxi drivers said they often tried to get police to intervene, but claimed they were told to chase the drug dealers away from the station deck themselves.
“Look at them. They’re selling tik right now, in front of us. We chased them away and now there is a new group of foreigners selling tik to everyone. These children buy from them and smoke here near the taxi lines,” one driver said.
“The few times that dealers do get caught they swallow the tik, because they keep it in their mouths, or they pay the police or law enforcement to let them go,” he said.
Asked whether the police were aware of allegations of pay-offs in exchange for leaving dealers to trade freely, Filander said they were not. He added that any allegations of misconduct or corruption against police officers would be investigated, with disciplinary action and suspension to follow where relevant.
One Grand Parade shopkeeper said some school children used a nearby payphone to contact dealers in the vicinity.
“They call their dealers and find out where to meet them. School starts at 8am but around 9.30 there are children here walking around aimlessly. You can see what’s going on, I don’t know why the police can’t pick it up,” she said.
The security guards added that sometimes when they tried to chase children away, they sat with the homeless people who frequented the area.
“It would be easier to solve this if we were working with police,” one security guard said.
Filander said that while they took the allegations “very seriously”, they could do little without statements and sufficient evidence.
“Our railway stations are being monitored and patrolled by railway police and other law enforcement personnel on a daily basis, and we do make a lot of drug arrests.
“Metrorail security guards are also being sensitised to be on the lookout for any illegal activities that might occur on trains and on the railway platforms,” he added.
Asked to comment, Community Safety MEC
Dan Plato said he would raise the issue as “a matter of urgency” with provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Arno Lamoer.
“The City Improvement District, together with SAPS and the metro police, have been extremely effective in curbing drug-related crime across the city over the past 10 years.
“I will be asking the SAPS, City Improvement District and metro police to join me on a walkabout of the area, so that we can talk to the informal traders and gather more information on this situation,” Plato said. - Weekend Argus
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