While the Deputy Minister of Safety and Security, Susan Shabangu, was making her now-famous speech in which she urged police to “kill the bastards”, I attended the opening night of Mike van Graan’s brilliant play Die Generaal at Artscape’s Arena Theatre.
The play is, in my opinion, probably Van Graan’s best work and I have seen most of his other plays. It has a roughness and coarseness to it which fits in with its aim of telling the story of crime in South Africa.
Roughly, the story is about Bolla (played superbly by Brendon Daniels), a Cape “coloured” criminal who gets sent to prison, in his opinion unfairly. He comes out of prison determined to take revenge by killing the prosecutor and, in that way, he would become a “generaal” in prison.
The play deals with the burden faced by underpaid police, with the main character, Willem (played by AJ van der Merwe) having to moonlight as a security guard at night. It also deals with interracial marriages and farm killings.
The play is mainly in Afrikaans but somehow the message still got through to those members of the audience who could not understand Afrikaans.
As I drove into Artscape’s parking area, I was impressed by the many cars I saw, only to discover that most of the people were not there to see Van Graan’s play but to see Chicago.
As I walked out of the theatre, I felt sad that most South Africans are more interested in foreign productions rather than supporting superb local theatre like Van Graan’s play.
At that time, I had not heard of the deputy minister’s speech and when I read it the next morning, the issues in the play became so much more vivid to me.
Without giving too much away, there is a confrontation in the play between Willem, the policeman, and Bolla, the criminal. There are guns involved and there are shootings involved. There is also another confrontation involving guns between Bolla and Willem’s partner Fani (played by Christopher Gxalaba).
The two confrontations have different outcomes and much of it relates to the deputy minister’s telling police not to fire warning shots.
“I want no warning shots. You have one shot and it must be a kill shot. If you miss, the criminals will go for the kill. They do not miss. We therefore cannot take this chance,” the deputy minister was reported to have said.
The fact that the deputy minister received a standing ovation is an indication of the “gatvol” factor that has crept into South African society with regards to crime. There is a feeling in many quarters, rightly or wrongly, that criminals have more rights than law-abiding citizens.
While not agreeing with everything the deputy minister said, I agree with the general sentiment that we can no longer afford to be victims. We need to, as citizens of South Africa, take things into our own hands and deal with the problems we face.
It does not help just to get angry. We must do something.
Maybe a way to start on crime would be to see Van Graan’s play, which runs until April 26 at Artscape. (I’m sure it will go to other parts of the country afterwards.) After that, try to engage others in conversations on how we can legally do something about crime.
I attended a conference in New York two years ago where one of the speakers said that all revolutions start around a dinner table. Maybe it is time for us to start a dinner-table revolution against crime and criminals.
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