ANC MPL Christian Martin’s infamous coffin has made a dramatic return to the spotlight – this time to highlight the role guns play in the gang-ravaged northern areas.
Martin, in November, slept in the coffin for a week in an unusual protest against gang violence in Port Elizabeth, an effort that seemingly paid off when police minister Bheki Cele visited the Bay twice following the protest and promised that gangsterism would be tackled head-on.
Shoppers at the Cleary Park shopping centre were on Friday surprised to see the reemergence of the coffin, which was on display right in front of the busy Shoprite store.
It was there to help promote a gun-free society, Martin said.
“As a gesture and symbolic manner of fighting crime and showing sympathy to those innocent [people] who died by the bullet of a gun, we are appealing to all parents to buy a toy gun and dump the gun into our coffin,” Martin said in a flyer handed to shoppers.
“We will burn all toy guns collected.”
Martin said guns had destroyed the lives of countless people.
“Since April this year we can easily count over 100 people who have been killed in gangrelated shootings in the area so the initiative is to try to rid our communities of guns.
“We are collecting toy guns, not only as a symbolic gesture, but also to highlight the fact that people are being robbed by [robbers using] toy guns.
“So what we are saying is that we don’t even want parents to buy toy guns for their children as Christmas presents. Buy books and not [toy] guns because from a young age children get used to guns and we want to change that mindset.
“What we are going to do over the festive season is to collect the toy guns and then destroy them.
“We are also encouraging parents who may have [toy] guns at home to destroy them because we do not want children to play with something that kills people every day.”
Martin said people who had real guns should hand the weapons over to police.
Some shoppers supported the initiative.
“I think it’s a good idea because it could make a difference in our communities where there’s so much crime.
“Children play with these toy guns today and tomorrow they would want to use the real thing,” Estelllene Daniels from Jacksonville said.
Her husband, Damien Daniels, agreed: “The first thing that crossed my mind when I saw the coffin and the guns was, ‘How can Christian [Martin] now be selling [toy] guns – what’s going on?’, but when I read about what they’re trying to do I thought it was a great idea. Toy guns must not even be sold in stores,” he said.
Another shopper, Siphelele Dambuza from Walmer, said poverty was one of the social ills that drove youngsters to crime.
“Yes, it’s true that gangsters use toy guns to rob people. Sometimes it’s just because they don’t have jobs. They don’t have anything better to do. I support this cause and I hope the message gets through to the parents out there.”
Roxanne Geldebloem from West End said: “I’m also against the thing of buying [toy] guns for children. I used to do it, but I definitely will not do it again.”
Khoisan chief Crawford Fraser, who also took part in the coffin sleep-in protest, said they were desperate for change in the northern areas.
“We came to Cleary Park to urge parents not buy guns for their children for Christmas. Because that’s where it starts.”