Earlier this month, Forest Whitaker, American Actor, Producer, and Director who has earned his reputation in the film industry, founded the Whitaker Peace and Development Initiative in Athlone, Cape Town. He spoke about the progress of the programme at a press conference. Athlone is a suburb of Cape Town located to the east of the city centre on the Cape Flats. From January to March this year the ShotSpotter programme detected 1 465 gunshots in Hanover Park and Manenberg which resulted in 15 injuries and three arrests made.
The relocation of coloured and black people from Cape Town’s inner city to the Cape Flats and surrounding townships during apartheid had a powerful effect on those relocated. According to Criminologist, Don Pinnock “The social dislocation nurtured conditions for the street gangs of the early 1980s to thrive” Programme Director of the WPDI, Dr Chance Chagunda emphasized the need for this programme and what it can do for the community right now: “The young people on the Cape Flats face violence every day and when you are in these conditions all the time it’s almost impossible to change without support.”
South African convicted criminal, Gayton McKenzie grew up in a neighbourhood ridden with drugs and gangsterism reformed his life after witnessing a rape incident in jail. He is the author of The Choice which is based on a true story. The Choice is the story of a man who, though he started off well enough as the son of solid, hard-working parents, was soon drawn into the world of gangsters where he rose through the ranks to become a feared gang chief. McKenzie advises youngsters who glorify crime to look elsewhere for heroes and heroines.
WPDI is a five-year programme, in partnership with BNP Paribas Group South Africa, and local consumer finance business RCS seeks to bring change in areas deeply affected by gang violence. According to Major General Jeremy Vearey, Provincial Commander of Operation Combat “gangs were most often formed by children seeking physical protection from threats in their communities,”.
45 young people from areas most affected by gang violence in Cape Town were chosen in a period of three months based on their personal experience and capability to act as agents of change in their communities. Trainers of Trainees is a group of youngsters who are in the process of educating 360 young people from communities across Cape Town to become social development ambassadors by learning how to engage with residents to mediate conflicts and foster peace. Sesethu Tyali is a young woman from Khayelitsha who is now a trainer of trainees in the WPDI programme. “I’m from a community impacted by violence, and to be selected as an agent of change, and someone that my community can look to is exciting. The WPDI equips us with skills that include peacekeeping and conflict resolution. This is important as we share the message within our community that there is an alternative to joining gangs.”
WPDI’s mission is to empower young men and women living in vulnerable areas to become leaders, peacemakers and entrepreneurs in their communities and to bring about peace and stability, through the community learning centre in Athlone. Furthermore, the programme has also been successfully rolled out in communities impacted by conflict in other parts of the word, namely; South Sudan, Uganda, the United States and Mexico.
“The success of the WPDI Youth Peacemaker Network lies in the trust that the programme creates in the community. The youth we train are from the community and work for it. Our programme becomes what they make of it. Our approach will be the same on the Cape Flats, where we will be providing young women and men with tools and resources that they can put to use in their daily lives,” said Whitaker. Over the next three years, the programme will help empower approximately 2,400 young people to become leaders and champions to address problems in their schools and communities.
