If you come from Doornfontein in lower Johannesburg, drive up Twist Street all the way to the top of the rise you will find yourself in Hillbrow, a two-square-kilometre sprawl of tightly packed high rise buildings.
Once the pick of Johannesburg real estate, the area is now a slum, the buildings mostly sagging hulks within whose dark interiors an unbelievable jumble of jam-packed humanity inhabits every room, every nook, every cranny, every passage and space beneath every stairway.
If you know anything at all about Hillbrow you will keep your car doors locked, the windows wound up tight, and you will try to adjust your speed to coincide with traffic lights. You will not want to have to stop at any of the endless street intersections. Not if you can help it. You will know that the denizens thronging the streets are always on the lookout for the main chance, to smash and grab, to hijack. You name it, every bad thing imaginable happens in this neck of the woods.
Now you have passed over Hillbrow’s crest, heading down the other side, anxious to leave that place behind. Far behind.
You turn left into Empire Road, heading west, swing right into Oxford Road heading north now, and you’re on your way to Johannesburg’s northern suburbs, the nature of the terrain different, not so many intersections, not so dangerous anymore.
You can relax a bit. But only a bit. You’re not yet out of the woods. Actually you’re never out of the woods anywhere in South Africa. Criminals lurk everywhere. From place to place it’s just a matter of degree. But never mind, Hillbrow is falling farther and farther behind with each passing minute. That, at least, is a reason to feel more comfortable.
You’re still driving along Oxford Road, passing Killarney on the right then Saxonwold on the left (where President Zuma used to live), the first of the northern suburbs. Oxford Road is a long thoroughfare.
Now you’re crossing over the Bolton Road intersection, passing between Rosebank and Melrose, then over Jellicoe Avenue, Dunkeld on the left, off to the right, farther on, Wanderers Stadium.
Now Oxford Road changes its name to Rivonia Road, still heading north, driving past Inanda, the Inanda Country Club a stone’s throw away in a high wind, but you’re not going there. Your destination is Sandton, one of the most affluent suburbs in South Africa.
All the larnies live in Sandton. You’re getting closer, left into Sandton Drive, Nelson Mandela Square on the right, this is Sandton.
Sandton, a paradise on earth.
Hillbrow might just as well be on a different planet, so removed is it from this place where the signs of prosperity meet the eye every which way you turn, the magnificent houses and manicured lawns behind high walls with electronic entrance gates, driveways adorned with Mercs and Beamers and four-by-fours, state of the art security, every house locked in tight as Fort Knox, people inside sleeping peacefully at night, not a care in the world beyond counting their money.
At least that is the perception.
To the casual observer that would certainly be the perception. But the casual observer would be wrong. It’s all a facade, a front masking a grim reality, which in South Africa is that the more affluent a suburb, the more attention it gets from criminals, vicious, violent monsters who have no shred of decency as human beings, no compassion for anyone, man woman or child.
And Sandton gets plenty of attention from criminals.
Which brings me to the reason for writing this missive (sorry if you’ve been bored by the droning preamble, but I wanted to paint a word picture, for readers across the water, of the discrepancies that exist between places like Hillbrow and Sandton, whose counterparts are spread all over South Africa).
No one is really protected from crime in Sandton. Criminals use creative methods to circumvent the most stringent security. A recent media report highlights the plight of Sandton residents:
Hot Iron Torture: Domestics Arrested
For police officers accustomed to hauling armed robbers out of Alexandra, it was an unusual mission: track down and arrest two domestic workers hiding out in Hillbrow.
But the capture of their suspects broke wide open a case in which a Sandton woman was tortured with a hot iron during a house robbery last week.
The attack was the third in as many years that has taken place at the luxury Bryanston complex where convicted drug dealer Glenn Agliotti’s family were held up in 2007.
Here’s a link so you can read the entire article, but first bear with me for a moment longer. Corruption and incompetence in South Africa’s police force is an established fact. Nevertheless, we need to recognise that there are good and dedicated cops out there working hard to bring to justice the criminals that without doubt have the potential to bring this country crashing down about our heads.
The good cops are few in number and the expression that comes to mind is the thin blue line that stands between law abiding citizens and anarchy.
The cops who successfully tracked the two criminal domestic workers all the way to Hillbrow achieved a remarkable feat of investigative police work. But over and above that, to actually locate the pair in that practically impenetrable sanctuary for criminals, and bring them out to face a court of justice, is beyond remarkable. It’s mind-boggling that they got it right.
World class police work, that’s what it is, along the lines of, the Mounties always get their man.
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