Tyson (his first name has been changed) sells cannabis and works as a lookout on street corners to report the presence of “farmers” (at the shelves).
Sales of “weed” earns him around 300 rands a week. “That’s not a lot yet”, he judges. He gets his marijuana from “wholesalers” thanks to the money he earns by begging motorists at traffic lights. He then resells it at the price of 10 rands [0,56 euro] gasket.
And does Tyson smoke too? “Oui”recognizes the boy, who claims to be 15 years old – yet he is about the same age as the friend who accompanies him, and who is 10. At this time when the children are supposed to be at school, very quickly formed around Tyson a semicircle of young boys who are not 16 years old, and who assure that he is less than 12.
The gears of gang warfare
Tyson and his pals say they dropped out of school. Tyson quit in fifth [l’équivalent de la sixième en France] and, after several consecutive weeks of absence, his name was automatically removed from the enrollment of his school.
A radiation that tell of having known all the young people that we meet with Tyson, erased from the lists of students after having missed classes for a long time.
“When it rains, here in Manenberg [township du Cap]the children do not go to school”, strikes a boy, while another makes the whole assembly laugh by increasing [dans un mélange d’afrikaans et d’anglais] : “Die is onse homeground, dis lekker hier, we learn here on the streets” (“We are at home, it is good here, our school is the street”).
they are better “outside than at school”, adds another – going to the neighborhood school means exposing yourself to the risk of violence with members of rival gangs who also go there.
Last March, in this township of Manenberg, Cape Town, two weeks of clashes between the Hard Livings and the Clever Kids ended in the death of 11 people, members of these gangs or relatives. The Americans, another infamous gang, are held responsible for the murder just two weeks ago of three people, a woman and two suspected members of the rival Jesters gang.
Tyson chose him to join a gang, but he didn’t “not really” want to be. It is above all that he follows the example of his father, an alleged member of the Hard Livings and in prison for seven years.
Tyson is lucky: he has never been arrested or wanted by the police. Not yet. “He is small moss” (“It’s a little one”) explains another boy.
While adult delinquents may not measure their influence, or their hold, on little Tyson, they have understood the value of using these gangsters in short pants.
Criminal responsibility, political irresponsibility
Hence the concern of activists and association workers, in this difficult district of the Cape Flats [“plaine du Cap”]after the reform of the Child Justice Act [loi sur la justice des mineurs].
The “intrinsic danger” of the new law, notes Brian Williams, president of the labor law and mediation firm Williams Labor Law and Mediation, is that these amendments, instead of improving the protection of minors, on the contrary accelerate the recruitment of children in gangs.
The Child Justice Amendment Act, signed into law on August 19 by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, lowered the criminal majority from 10 to 1