Hard life growing up on Cape Flats

GROWING up on the Cape Flats, it’s really interesting to listen to the stories of the older generation. How they fought for their freedom. How they had to skelmpies go around to get into places that were off-limits to non-whites. These are the stories you carry with you till you die.

If you really want to get into Jeremy Veary’s head, you should read this book. I wanted to know who the man behind the SAPS badge was. What is his story?The book starts with a kick in the stomach on the day Jeremy got his first pair of shoes, how a little laaitie experienced racism on a day that was supposed to be a big milestone in his life, how he had to learn that people of colour simply cannot walk anywhere they please. The way his mother stood up for her son was remarkable. A strong woman with Christian values, she was also the one that gave him insights about how the community needed representatives to fight for the marginalised. Being a factory

That’s when the fight stopped and no one would talk about the incident again. That’s how they were forced to respect each other as children. Why? Because that is how you earned respect back in the day, how you deal with bullies and klein skollies. That was the way to survive.

Jeremy talks about the difficulties and “kak” he went through. Yes, literally, at one point he was covered in human faeces because he had to take the “stront balie” out. His struggle with lust as a teenager, how he went from barely making it in matric with all the trouble and fights he got into at school to becoming a teacher.

One of things that struck me when reading the book was about the Afrikaans used. It was clearly the standardised Afrikaans. Not the Afrikaans that the older generation used or the folks on the Cape Flats.

Take for example the third paragraph on page one: “Daardie bergwindbedompige middag in 1968 was soos ’n mylpaalgebeurtenis”, and I was just a little disappointed that the hoë Afrikaans sometimes got in the way of a very good story.