Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
‘You don’t kill – you talk first’
of ShotSpotter technology when responding to shootings. ShotSpotter is a gun-detection system that picks up gunfire and is able to pinpoint its location.
The ShotSpotter app is installed on all the CeaseFire workers’ phones. It also helps them to predict where a shooting may occur and protect themselves.
A few months after I first met the interrupters, we attended a funeral of a gang leader I met a few hours before he was shot.
It’s 7am on a Saturday morning and the street outside his house is a hive of activity. Every few minutes, a police van drives past. A retaliation is likely.
“Abi” Ruiters is standing next to me. He can sense my sadness and gives me some insight into why this work is so important to him. “We are here to reduce the violence, and if we can reduce it, then there is a chance that it can stop. I put 20 years of bad into my community, now is my time to make it right,” he said.
“Losing someone you know is a bit like a knife wound,” Frey added. “It hurts like hell and takes a long time to heal, but it doesn’t kill you and you just have to carry on.”
“Tassie” Johnson, the youngest and newest interrupter, helps carry the coffin. The dead man was his cousin. Last year, Johnson decided to change his life and turn his back on the gang life.
But it hasn’t been an easy journey. He has lost three “brother” figures to gang violence. But he is resilient, and even his former gang members salute him for the way he has been able to turn his life around.
Johnson said: “I changed my life for my kids. They didn’t ask to be here, I brought them into this world. I don’t want them to live the same life I did. I want something better for them.”
Religion plays an important role in the recovery of former gangsters. They have great respect for religion, and it is important to have interrupters who come from a Muslim or Christian background involved with the CeaseFire programme. One of the first things a gang will ask for when CeaseFire conducts a mediation is, “Can we open up with prayer?”
A gangster’s respect for religion likely stems from a very real awareness of his or her own mortality.
Outreach workers Davis, McKay, Hans, Matthews, Urshwin Engel and De Bruin spend their days between Camp Joy and the community centre in Hanover Park. Once a participant in the CeaseFire programme has expressed a desire to change his or her life, they will be assigned an outreach worker.
Dealing with youth at risk comes naturally to the likes of McKay, who you will usually find smiling. However, he takes on a serious tone when he tells me about a participant with whom he worked with for eight years before he was killed. “You get close to people and you get used to them, you know. It’s like losing your own son,” he said.
A few months after I met the interrupters, I’m sitting in a dusty courtyard of an apartment block in an area known as The Valley of The Plenty (Mongrel territory) with reformed gangster Petersen, the oldest living member of the infamous Mongrels gang.
A group of youngsters walk past. Petersen looks on and shakes his head in dismay. “I’m worried for these youngsters. I’ve seen where gang life takes you and it doesn’t look good. You end up in prison, a wheelchair, or a coffin,” he said.
I ask him what being an interrupter means to him. “Baby girl, I will do this work till the day I take my very last breath. CeaseFire for life.” He smiles, revealing a row of gold teeth.
This programme saves lives. In 2016, CeaseFire reduced gang violence on the Cape Flats by 43%. That translates into a significant number of saved lives.
Every gangster deserves an opportunity for a better life, yet the justice system doesn’t process high-risk individuals. Interrupting is an extremely difficult job but Pastor Engel and his fellow CeaseFire members are not afraid to get involved, help their community and bring about real change.
CeaseFire is proof that one can change your ending, and that you can use your past to create a better tomorrow.