Caught on camera? Not likely – even if you fancy flamin’ hot Nando’s…
Council could spend R52 200 on Nando's chicken to feed young maidens but cannot see to the safety of its own residents.
One of the unintended outcomes of last week’s horror shoot-out is a call for more ‘feel-good’ stories. You know, the ‘nice stories’, like the gardens at Eventide Mews and the plethora of church bazaars that dot our social calendars.
Strangely, the ‘bad news’ stories of man’s failures, short-comings and evil doings spread faster than the news of man’s achievements.
But there are elements – even from that incident – which give one hope: like the security guard who bravely risked his own life and got wounded in the process while taking on the heavily-armed gang, and the police husband and wife couple who were first on the scene and pitted their police pistols against an AK-47 rifle and a barrage of illegal firearms.
Sadly, the young passer-by who was shot just after alighting from a taxi is still in hospital. Another fall-out from the shooting was the usual call for the installation of security cameras to clamp down on seemingly out-of-control crime in the CBD. Dundee, we are told, is the only town in Northern KZN not to have CCTV coverage, making it easy pickings for criminals who refer to it as ‘stealing biscuits from granny’s kitchen’. The proposal for cameras was first mooted at least 14 years ago. Despite promises and discussions, nothing has happened. It beggars belief that Council could spend R52 200 on Nando’s chicken to feed young maidens and others in the blink of an eye, but cannot see its way clear to see to the safety of its own residents.
The chicken becomes tasteless when you spend Sunday morning dodging bullets on Victoria Street. So why are there no cameras?
One sage has suggested that this may expose those who pick up the ladies of the night after 9pm. Another said that crime is so interwoven into our society that it could be that the criminals are in any case running the show. Whatever the reason, it would indeed be tragic if it takes the death of a community leader in some kind of robbery to spur Council on to set up these cameras.
