Life on the Streets (Part 3)

South Africa

During the time of apartheid, each racial community lived in its own designated area. There was no intermarriage, and even if you happened to be wealthy, you were not able to buy a house in a better area. But this situation had some positive elements. First, the community became very close. Everyone knew each other, neighbors watched out for each other, and families tended to work together more.

My mother began to go to work from my first day at school. When I came home in the afternoon, our neighbor would check up on my brother and me and make sure we were okay. I never felt alone; I knew I was surrounded by people who would be there for me. If kids were seen on the street alone, there would always be someone to take care of them; someone would ask what was wrong, or if they needed a lift home and so on. At that time, women were not so career-oriented. If a woman worked, she did so to make ends meet and help her family.

At that time, there were only social services for white kids. If a white teenager got into trouble with the law, he would be sent to a juvenile facility; if a non-white teenager did the same, he would be sent to an adult prison. At the same time however, we had more community and extended-family support. A teenager from our community who went “off the rails” would be shipped off to a relative’s house and the family would gather round to help. No one wanted their kid to end up in an adult prison. We, as a community, were stuck in one place, but we knew each other and the kids grew up together, and what’s more, we were bound together in our mutual struggle for freedom from oppression and injustice. This mutual goal to be free brought the community together, and it felt so good to be part of this vibrant group; to be activists, to enjoy social solidarity.

As well as this, the various communities opened up and people were finally allowed to live wherever they liked. People moved from traditional non-white areas to traditional white areas and found themselves isolated. Upon moving, the family would find themselves with neighbors they didn’t know and who felt uneasy about their presence. The kids left behind their friends and there was no madrasah after school … the kids got bored. The white communities throughout the time of apartheid had been exposed to Western films, drinking alcohol, drug use and so on—which were things that our communities were saved from because non-whites weren’t allowed in the places that had such things. When non-whites came to live in white areas, all of a sudden, the youth were exposed to things they hadn’t really known before. Everything looked new, attractive, and inviting.

During apartheid, white schools were fully equipped with libraries, tennis courts, nice gardens, and good teachers, whereas non-white schools rarely had text books and usually had no windows. They were overcrowded, uncomfortable, and lacked equipment. So you can imagine how the non-white youth reacted when they had the chance to attend traditionally white schools! The youth saw that they were surrounded by luxury; they were prepared to compromise and do just about anything to be accepted into the traditionally white community. A new world was opening up to these youth—something they had never known before. What happened to the white youth was quite the opposite.

As a consequence, many white people were retrenched, lost houses that had been subsidized by the government, and became poor. The youth who had grown up with an easy lifestyle and lots of opportunity suddenly found themselves at a loss. Many ran away from home. This often came as a consequence of families having to live with extended family members in crowded environments, where money was always needed, but was rarely there.

Since the new government came to power, there is access and opportunity for everyone, but finances are drying up and there simply isn’t enough money to pay for or subsidize all the programs that need and deserve support. The apartheid government was supported both internally and externally by foreigners living in South Africa, and that support is no longer present like it was before.

Despite the strength of family and community in non-white communities, many youth still end up on the streets simply due to poverty. Approximately 80 percent of the black population still live in poverty. Often, the houses are overcrowded, the fathers work in faraway places (migrational workers), mothers often work as sleep-in domestics (raising someone else’s kids) because that pays better, and the kids are often taken care of by grandparents, who are not always able to exert sufficient discipline and control over the young ones. Without a stable parental figure, kids go out of control and the streets offer quick money from prostitution, drug dealing, and theft. There are truancy laws in place, but there are not enough police or government resources to investigate such trivial matters as truancy, so kids are left to do as they please. On the streets, the youth find membership and solidarity in gangs which give them a sense of power.

The crime rate has not really increased, it has simply spread out. Previously, if there was a crime in a white area it got media attention, but crime in non-white areas was largely ignored. When I was growing up, there was no police station in my township. Also, there were no guns available to non-whites, so people did not get injured so seriously, but now there are guns available to everyone and so it’s much easier to kill one another. Now, both white and non-white areas have media attention, so there is new focus on crime activity in non-white areas, which gives the impression that there is more crime. The police, prosecution, intelligence services, and the justice system are increasingly working in partnership with communities. Such collaborative efforts are partly responsible for the following gains:

• The rate of murder-related cases being reduced by 30.7% since 1994.
• The rate of vehicle hijacking being brought down by 33.7% since 1996.
• The rate of bank-related robberies being reduced by 52.2% since 1994.

Another reason why youth end up on the streets is AIDS. Usually, both parents die and there is no one to take care of the young people, so they end up on the streets.

The family unit is under attack: Pornography is readily available and there are no boundaries on people’s sexual behavior; permissiveness is attractive to people. Girls get drawn into prostitution thinking they’ll make easy money and lead comfortable lives, but end up working under a pimp or rather owned by a pimp and take drugs to ease the pain of it all. Once on the streets, the kids are prone to all kinds of abuse.

Young people sleep in parks, bus stops, shop doorways … anywhere. They ask for food and are usually given it, but people think they will steal and so end up driving them away. Muslims help the young people on the streets in various ways. Usually they help individually. It is normal to see them giving food, clothing, and money to poor kids. Young street people often knock on doors asking for food—we don’t turn them away. Mosques set aside amounts of zakah to give to young street people and people who organize themselves to help them. But the Muslim community is largely poor, so funding institutions to set up shelters and so on is rarely possible. To be effective, there would have to be a shelter in every area because the young street people are spread out. Transportation is expensive and necessary if the youth want to get to a shelter, so they usually think it’s better to use that money to buy food and then sleep on the streets.

Alcoholism is becoming a bigger and bigger problem. Previously, there were very few pubs, but now they can be found everywhere. If a person wants to open a pub they simply go to the wine companies, who will assist the person by giving them a low-cost loan with one year to repay. Right now, having a pub is the quickest way to make money. There has been a great increase in advertisements for the wine industry, and they are all directed to the non-white population! It’s part of the status thing—if you want to be modern and successful, the add tells you, you have to have a glass of wine in your hand. But the reality is that there is a lot of unemployment, men sitting at home all day and people get depressed. The men often go down to the pub and get drunk, then there is an increase in domestic violence, rape, assault, and kids get neglected because mother or father is drunk. The next step is usually that the youth get to taste what their parents are drinking; many become young alcoholics and often end up involved with gangsters.

The Muslim community is helping young street people from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. This help is usually done on a small scale simply because of lack of funds. But the community spirit is still there, although somehow weakened because of the dispersion of people. The problems that lead to young people ending up on the streets may differ from white or non-white backgrounds, but sadly, the results are the same.

But the picture is not entirely gloomy. The people are resilient and hopeful. The family is still intact, although laboring under the pressures being exerted on it. The government is ready and willing to help overcome the problems society faces—all it needs is more funds.

[As for those who strive hard in Our Cause, We will surely guide them to Our Paths. And verily, Allah is with the good doers.] (Al-`Ankabut 29:69)

Some Interesting Facts About South Africa

• South Africa has the largest reserves of gold (35%), manganese (80%), chromium (68%), platinum-group metals (56%), vanadium (45%), and alumino-silicates (37%).
• South Africa has the lowest cost of electricity in the world and the lowest cost of living compared to the world’s major cities.
• South Africa is the world’s leading producer of gold, generating 17% of the world’s annual output.
• South Africa has one of the highest levels of expenditure on education in the world, currently at 20% of GDP.
• South Africa is the first country in the world to have voluntarily abandoned its nuclear weapons capability.
• Souith Africa’s population is 46.6 million
• Ethnicity/race: black 75.2%, white 13.6%, Colored 8.6%, Indian 2.6%

Latiefa Achmat is an Islamic counselor and social worker in Cape Town, South Africa. She can be contacted at youth_campaign@iolteam.com.