Monday, December 8, 2008

Day 14: 8 December - Never Appropriate!

I see my morning blog, about Bonani, got the blood boiling for some of you! And that it should!! Unfortunately, this is quite a regular occurrence. The kids are no angels! Bonani himself was not 100% innocent early this morning. He had done something that deserved being reprimanded, but not beaten. I have talked to many people today about this situation. They all agree that a child should never be beaten like that, no matter what he or she does! I agree, but i would even go as far to say that an adult should not be beaten that way, even if they commit a serious felony, they still deserve to be treated with dignity and have the right not to be beaten, sprayed in the eyes with tear gas and dumped with water! So EVEN MORE so with a kid!! I know they get into trouble. I know they can be naughty beyond belief! But it is never...NEVER acceptable or appropriate to beat them like Bonani was beaten! And as i said, it happens often. Bonani has scars from other encounters.

I will upload pictures later so you can see for yourself; judge for yourself. If you click on Bonani you can see what he looked like before they rearranged his face. (this picture was taken late last week)

It was the CCID Security that beat him, threw him in the back of the security truck with a can of tear gas, and then doused him with water. The CCID, for those that don't know, are the Central City Improvement District. The basically tax the businesses in the CBD and then put that money towards making the CBD a "better" place. One of their biggest challenges are the "vagrants"; most especially the kids. The CCID and I actually have a lot in common! We both want to see a day where there are no children living on the streets of Cape Town. Unfortunately, they have the best interest of business and tourism in mind. I have the best interest of the CHILDREN in mind!! They will never succeed. What they don't realise is they are creating more and more enemies. Because they pick up the kids and drop them in far off places, only for them to return more angry. They arrest the kids for petty cases, only for the kids to come out of jail better criminals. They try and beat the kids away, only creating children with more battle wounds to avenge.

I would not want the security guards' jobs for one second! I know it must be tough!! They have a lot of pressure from above to "get rid of the kids". They don't know what to do with them. So they act stupidly. As i said, i would not want their job. But they HAVE their job, and they should do it properly. It is unconstitutional to treat people the way they do. They should be taken before the constitutional court. And i just might!!!!

Chapter 2: Section 38 Enforcement of Rights

Anyone listed in this section has the right to approach a competent court, alleging that a right in the Bill of Rights has been infringed or threatened, and the court may grant appropriate relief, including a declaration of rights. The persons who may approach a court are -

  1. anyone acting in their own interest;
  2. anyone acting on behalf of another person who cannot act in their own name;
  3. anyone acting as a member of, or in the interest of, a group or class of persons;
  4. anyone acting in the public interest; and
  5. an association acting in the interest of its members.

1 comment:

Disko said...

unfortunately only today was i made aware of your blog but i feel so fortunate that i was. i have sat for the last 2 hours reading every piece of information that you have so kindly shared. i want to start of by saying the respect i have for you makes me fell able to breath easier knowing that there are people still in this world who care and have the courage to ACT on it.

your blog has left me with so many emotions, and the main one would have to be anger.

and that anger is directly aimed at our government and our police force, unfortunately i have witnessed accounts that you have explained, first hand towards other homeless people i have volunteered with. and in most instances these were people who had done nothing wrong.
to this day whenever i walk into a police station to report a stolen phone and so on and so on i find my breath shorten and my heart pulse, by just being in this area of "false" security.
this completely saddens me cause i do believe that anger is a useless emotion and it should not be the emotion that one uses to finally ACT.
i give so often and will continue to do so cause i do believe that nobody needs as much as they have accumulated and as i do not want to take the chance of giving money to someone i do not personally know in the thoughts that it might be used for drugs.

anyway wish i could have done more to help this initiative in forms of publicizing it more.but i will continue to tell of your act of humanity to try and make this world more humane.

i know the last thing anyone wants to hear when doing something like this is "oh you are so brave" wow its amazing what you are doing" so in steed i will end this post of by saying through your actions i will continue to do as every human should do and that is help those less fortunate and those who have become victims of a unjust world.
thank you!