Marvin's Redemption - Deprived youth and drug addiction in Heideveld - Cape Town - South Africa (18 images)

FULL TEXT AND EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MARVIN ARE AVAILABLE.

Please write to alex@alexmasi.co.uk

In South Africa, young residents of impoverished areas are easily led into criminal activity as an alternative to survive amid strife unemployment and poverty.

Youngsters living in some of the poorest suburbs of Cape Town, such as Heideveld, start being in close contact with members of gangs and criminal activity since their early teens.

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FULL TEXT AND EXTENSIVE INTERVIEW WITH MARVIN ARE AVAILABLE.

Please write to alex@alexmasi.co.uk

In South Africa, young residents of impoverished areas are easily led into criminal activity as an alternative to survive amid strife unemployment and poverty.

Youngsters living in some of the poorest suburbs of Cape Town, such as Heideveld, start being in close contact with members of gangs and criminal activity since their early teens.

Lured by the 'easy gains' offered by criminal activity, they are often tempted to join one of the local gangs, which is likely to be composed by friends living in the community.

Membership to a gang most of the times implies having their tattoo marked on the body, using hand signs and speaking a particular slang, in accordance with the area and the particular gang, apart from carrying out criminal activities and fight with rival groups.

Innocent people are muredered every year by gangsters believing them to be part of other gangs due to the language just learnt on the streets, or by just being a passer-by.

Targeting mostly young people to carry out the 'dirty jobs', gangs in the Western Cape, and South Africa are an endemic problem in increase after the fall of the radical apartheid system.

'Coloured' communities have lost almost all their help from a government that now is concerned on empowering the indigenous people through its BEE (Black Economic Empowerment) program.

Alienated into ghettos and without state grants or substantial development activities, youngsters in Heideveld are sometimes forced to join a gang or work in illecit traffics to provide for their own family.

Drug abuse between kids as young as 12 is not uncommon in places where crystal meth, mandrax and marijuana are inexpensive and easily accessible.
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