Letter: The safe PE of my childhood exists no more
Dear Mr Mayor,
On Tuesday, one of my closest friends and her dad were held at gunpoint inside the walls of their home, and expensive and hard-earned possessions ripped from them. I type this while safely residing in Dubai, having left my hometown of Port Elizabeth a few years ago – a Port Elizabeth that is no more.
I remember the days when my friends and I would walk around in the northern areas, visiting between houses, sitting on street corners, rollerblading in the parks and buying sweets from the corner shops. I wouldn’t even drive in these areas now – unless under duress.
At times I am utterly horrified by the change of circumstances in what was once one of the more peaceful cities in the country. Now, Port Elizabeth is playing with the big boys – quite the achievement.
When one merely considers the Eastern Cape, Port Elizabeth accounts for most of the major crimes that take place. A simple visit to the provincial section on crimestatssa.com will prove my point, as well as an article posted on businesstech.co.za in January that listed international rankings of South African cities in terms of crime – Port Elizabeth trumps Johannesburg in terms of murder rate. A shocking revelation!
It sickens me that I am thankful for being in Dubai because I no longer have to watch my back when I walk in the street. I walk home from work when it is dark outside and don’t fear for my life.
There are no burglar bars on windows here, no electric fencing, no towering wrought-iron gates, no alarm systems. It took me a few months to feel comfortable about the fact that I didn’t have five bolts on my front door with a chain.
Yet, locals here want to complain about their government. They should spend a day in my home country to see what a truly useless government is like.
So, my point of this letter is: what exactly are you doing to ensure the safety of your people? What are your plans to crack down on the drugs, gangsterism, hijackings, murders and other crimes happening in your city?
I’m sick of hearing people tell family and friends simply to move out of the northern areas as if other parts of the city are that much safer. Also, how utterly presumptuous of people to think it’s a simple task for people to uproot their entire existence.
Let us not forget that not everyone can afford to live in the “safer” areas. Some people have it harder than others – they do not have a choice but to live where they do.
Of course, I’m fully aware this letter will either be disregarded or simply trashed, but I needed to feel like I was doing something. My concern for my hometown goes beyond crime, though.
In fact, I could write an entirely new letter on the state of public facilities and roads. Each time I visit, Port Elizabeth seems a little more worse for wear with bigger potholes, more shacks, more farm animals roaming the streets and more destitute people on street corners.
Again, how “lucky” I am to be away from it all.
It’s very hard to be optimistic about the state of things in Port Elizabeth and South Africa as a whole. With few to no leaders to look to for hope or signs of change, one feels deeply saddened that the future of the country seems dark.
I would have thought that a man (partly) responsible for bringing the World Cup to our country in 2010, and who therefore ultimately is to be thanked for the spirit, hope and general “gees” of the country during that time, would want to try his best to keep that momentum going and to use his role of power for the good. Was I, and so many others, wrong in assuming this?
