Irrespective of where you go, even if it was not here in the Western Cape. If you have our people live in informal settlements and in squallier as we have seen it where there are no lights. The Minister was saying the other day that he was in a particular area where there were lights throughout the night - I think it was in Constantia. He later went to another area Bonteheuwel or Nyanga where there was one light working and the cameras were not working at all. If you walk down the streets here next to Parliament there are cameras everywhere. If something happens to you the police will be able to react immediately. But if you go to those areas the cameras are not working. Even where you
see a camera that camera may not be working and the lighting is very poor. Indeed, that is the reality. In the first instance, it is not because it is here. We need to improve the lives of our people, we need to allocate budgets to such that we better their lives. A child must know that at a particular age he or she must be at school. We must help educate the people of the country including their mothers that they must make sure that children go to school. It starts with a Grade 3 or Grade 4 child staying at home and not going to school. You must know that that child is already vulnerable to be recruited by gangs.
We are told stories that some of the children are on retainers by the gangs. When you are on retainer is when gangsters give you money and all those things that you wish to have as a child, those that your mother or your father cannot afford. That's their way of attracting you to join gangs. The next thing is your first victim - take a gun and shoot that old lady, that old man or the gangster from the other group. These are things that are happening. We are talking about real lives and not theory from the book about what causes it. We are talking about real live stories that we are seeing on the ground. Poverty plays a big role in creating this kind of atmosphere which we have in the Western Cape.
I think that is the reason why the Minister for a long time was saying the coming in of the SA National Defence Force is not going to help. It is a temporal measure and is not sustainable. You come in, you close off the place and allow the police to do their work. But is that going to be permanent? It can't be permanent because it is not our mandate to deploy internally. In any event we always say when we laugh that soldiers are not trained for that. There are three Bs that soldiers know - a boot, barrel and a bullet. If you push soldiers to deal with issues of crowd control, this and that, it is not going to work. People are going to die. We should commend the police, the men and women of the police and the Defence Force for the manner in which they have conducted themselves under extreme provocations. We have not heard of a situation where citizens have been shot and killed. Thank you.