Henriette Abrahams
The Night Is Still Young
Nyanga:
five shot.
Three blue, two red.
Bodies filed into colour codes,
as if death were paperwork,
as if grief must be catalogued.
Elsies River updates—
“one young male fatally wounded.”
The message pings,
urgent as breaking news,
but routine as weather.
Mothers’ screams never trend.
Hanover Park rattles,
Moray Court shakes with gunfire.
The state sends silence,
while WhatsApp carries the sirens.
Schaap kraal:
a body dumped on Olieboom Street.
No services.
Just the flies,
and the neighbours turning away
because what else can they do?
Baden Powell Drive:
a cop’s car abandoned,
blood soaking the upholstery.
The bushes hold him,
but it’s easier to look away.
The city will count potholes,
not missing officers.
Seawinds:
a 23-year-old woman, head pierced.
A 16-year-old boy, another stolen future.
“Any update on the girl’s condition?”
As if survival were likely,
as if we were not living in a war
dressed up as democracy.
This is not crime.
This is design.
This is governance by abandonment,
bullets outsourced as policy.
This is business fattening itself
on Cape Flats funerals.
Nyanga, Elsies, Hanover Park, Seawinds
names rolled like dice,
all landing the same:
blood on tar,
tears in the dark,
and a system that calls it “incident report.”
The night is still young on the Cape Flats.
And death still on duty.
ALSO READ: No Plan, No Shame: The State Abandons the Cape Flats
The Night Is Still Young is written by Henriette Abrahams who is a Community Activist based in Bonteheuwel, Cape Town
