Outsiders experiencing the Bruin community

“South Africa is still a country that’s very divided. The apartheid system still exists. You’ve got black people, ‘coloured’ people and white people, and they all live in their own communities. The blacks are the poorest, the coloureds are a bit better off and the whites still have most of the wealth and the best jobs,” he says. “I regard myself as black, but I was staying in a coloured community and they all saw me as coloured, which gives you a higher social status. It was something I found quite hard to deal with.”

To begin with, Marcus worked with the West Coast Environmental Co-operative (WCEC) helping to build a bird hide to attract more tourists and birdwatchers to the area. But after a few weeks he and his colleagues asked to work in the local schools, which he found much more rewarding.

“As a youth worker in Leeds, I spend a lot of time talking to young offenders and I was able to teach the kids over there about the dangers of cannabis, or tut as they call it, and I talked to them about gang culture and weapon crime which are big problems (in South Africa).”

Marcus has been a youth justice worker for Leeds Youth Offending Service for the past seven years, but he admits that he was shocked by the scale of gang culture in South Africa, with children as young as eight or nine involved. “When I talked to the kids, some of them said they wanted to be doctors, lawyers, or nurses, but quite a few said they wanted to be in a gang.

“In some cases, their parents had died of Aids and they wanted the sense of belonging they think being in a gang will give them. I was talking to a couple of boys and one wrote ’26’ on my arm, which is the name of a gang. And he told me he wanted to be a gang member when he grew up. I was a bit shocked, but it’s a way of life for a lot of young people in South Africa.”

Gang culture is inextricably linked to knife crime.

“This trip really opened my eyes to a completely different world. I was surprised at how gun and knife crime are barely tackled, even though there is such a gang culture there. It really makes you grateful for the society we have here.”

Drug addiction, particularly cannabis and crystal meth, is also rife among much of the younger population.

“I didn’t see it, but a colleague of mine said he saw a car pull up to the gates of the primary school and this guy was apparently trying to sell drugs. This was only in the coloured community. I didn’t see the black communities, where it’s supposed to be even worse. There are reports of babies becoming addicted to glue because their parents are addicts and they’re giving it to infants to keep them quiet.”

Although Marcus has now returned, another team has replaced the group he worked with, to continue where they left off. And despite the social problems he witnessed, he found the trip an valuable experience. “People there face a lot of hardship but in many ways they seem happier. There’s a strong sense of community that you don’t see much in England.

“When we arrived it lifted the community, there was an
air of depression because there’s a lack of jobs and little in the way of opportunities. But we brought enthusiasm and new equipment with us, and life improved a bit for the people. The prospect that this can continue over the next three years is amazing.”

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By Chris Bond