Kid gangster weapons confiscated by taxi owners in Khayelitsha. Photo by Mary-Anne Gontsana.
1 August 2012
Every finish line is the beginning of a race. I’m on the finish line of my gangster life and at the beginning of whole new life.
They say you can’t stop being a gangster until you are dead. It’s true but you can choose which kind of a gangster you want to be.
I have chosen to be a gangster with purpose and meaning, a gangster who chooses life over death, who choses a future over jail. Those who loved and trusted me were no longer seeing me as the Mzi they know but now that’s all changing. It’s still a long walk but I’m starting to see progress.
I wish and hope thousands of others out there will see that the “Gurans” is not the best place for them to be heroes, but a road to their graves. They fight so that they can be praised by girls who say, ”hayijonga uyayenza le way“, but when you dead they say, “hayi shame”.
You think you the man and all the girls shout your name. Let’s say you get stabbed and end up in a wheelchair. Which one of those girls will take care of you? Only your parents will do that. When you fighting and a brick hits you eye and you end up losing you eye, which one of those girls will want to be your girlfriend?
All you will hear will be “Yhu hayi lo uyinyori” and only your parents will love you so why not make you parents happy and stop impressing people who don’t give a damn about you and do something with your life?
You fight everyday and risk your life for what? I’m sure the answer is not there. There are fights, there are battles and there are wars. This is none of that. This is a suicide mission with no meaning. If you carry on fighting how will you go to school, college or work without being stabbed or shot? You where given freedom and now you are pissing on it.
VATO, VURA, ITALY, MDC: let those names go. I am giving you a new gang name and thats GWP - Gangsters With Purpose. Try to make your parents happy and see how many blessings you will get and what that can do for your life and how many girls will like when you have both your legs and both you eyes. Hayi kabi majita, GWP is the way to go.