There are deadly shootings on the Cape Flats on a regular basis, but it just hits home harder when we actually see it happening.
I am talking about the video of the shooting at the garage opposite Kenilworth Centre last Saturday.
It is one of the cruellest things you’ll ever see; how easy it is for people to take another’s life.
In the video, a man is filling up his car at the garage and can be seen leaning out the window and talking to someone out of sight.
Moments later three men come running from behind and start shooting at him from all directions.
The shooting is mostly done by two, but when you look carefully, you can see a third man’s firearm.
In fact, he fires the last few bullets before they run.
The actual shooting lasts for little more than 10 seconds; but in that time, the shooters make absolutely sure that there’s no chance their victim will survive.
The one shooter even puts his gun through the open window to get a few point-blank shots in; a final display of how little their target’s life means to them.
It happened in broad daylight on a Saturday afternoon; at one of the busiest retail intersections in Cape Town; in the centre of the triangle that forms the Wynberg, Claremont and Lansdowne police stations; with witnesses all around.
None of this deterred the murderers from striking and continuing to shoot at police chasing after them as they desperately tried to evade arrest.
Fortunately, no innocent bystanders were hit by stray bullets and four suspects were eventually arrested.
Watching that video of what some believes was a gang hit, was such a surreal experience.
It is hard for me to believe that for some people, life is that cheap.
People like me would always have trouble fully believing that such malevolence actually exists if we didn’t see it happening first hand, or in videos like that.
Seeing young men casually snuff out the life of another human being is an unbelievably awful thing to witness.
But it also makes me wonder about the kinds of influences in their lives that make it possible for them to step over that line of morals that makes us human; the values and principles that separates us from the animal kingdom and that makes us want to love and nurture and protect others in our species.
Is it really just a matter of being high on drugs, or the need to belong (in a gang) or the fear of others harming you if you don’t act outside of your own humanity?
I wonder about that!
The other reason why videos like these are important is so that politicians (and those who don’t live on the Cape Flats) can see what some of our friends and colleagues have to live with on a daily basis.
It’s one thing to hear them tell the stories around the water cooler on a Monday morning. It’s another thing altogether to have seen it.
While they may be far removed from these realities, it is part of Cape Town’s shame and trauma.
It has long since stopped being about stemming the violence, eradicating gangsterism and getting rid of the guns.
These are short-term solutions and aren’t sustainable.
Alongside that, it is about addressing the ongoing societal trauma and showing young people that their dreams matter and can be achieved.
Most importantly, it is about repairing the humanity of those who perpetrate these acts of brutality upon their own.
Because if that video shows nothing else, it clearly depicts our slide into barbaric savagery that doesn’t even exist in the animal kingdom.