Exactly 10 years ago, I was invited to the International Human Rights Film Festival in Mexico. The invitation was extended to Egyptian journalist Heba Afify, Yemeni human rights activist and journalist Afrah Nasser, Catalonia journalist Judith Torrea, and I.
We spent almost three weeks in the beautiful country, giving lectures about human rights in the developing world at various institutions of higher learning, including Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, the biggest university in Latin America. We also travelled across Mexico, going as far as the southern province of Morelos. But there was one part of Mexico that we were strongly discouraged from visiting, Ciudad Juárez, which lies in north Mexico and shares a border with El Paso, Texas, in the US.
At the time, Ciudad Juárez was considered one of the most dangerous cities in the world. It had one of the highest rates of human trafficking, femicide and murder. Due to its strategic location along the US/Mexico border, it was also the heart of the Mexican drug trade. This resulted in serious gang activity that led to a lot of violence and death in the city.
Torrea, who was originally from Spain, had spent almost two decades covering the horrors in Ciudad Juárez through her award-winning blog, Ciudad Juárez, in the Shadow of Drug Trafficking. But so dangerous was the city that even Torrea, who had lived there for many years, would not allow us to go there.
Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking a lot about Ciudad Juárez. It began with the senseless shooting of a teenage boy in the Cape Flats earlier this year. The young man was hit by multiple stray bullets when rival gangs opened fire on each other.
It’s a common occurrence in the area, but the young man’s story was particularly devastating because he was hours away from receiving his matric results and days away from starting his journey in university. The widespread shootings and violence that has erupted in Westbury in Johannesburg in recent weeks also reminded me of Ciudad Juárez.
In the past seven days, at least 13 people have been shot and wounded, and two killed, in Westbury. Reports indicate that the escalation in violence is the result of the murder of Keenan Sheldon Ebrahim, an alleged leader of the Fast Guns gang. Ebrahim was shot in a suspected hit while travelling in a white Mercedes-Benz in Roodepoort, west of Johannesburg. Members of the Westbury community are living in so much fear that they are no longer allowing their children to play out on the streets. They have also stated that they no longer report cases of gang activity and criminality to the police because nothing is being done. One resident who spoke to the media on condition of anonymity stated that the only solution was for the army to be brought in.
The rising levels of gangsterism, all categories of contact crime, violence in general and human trafficking in our country is concerning. A research report by the US Agency for International Development and research partners launched a few weeks ago posits that SA remains a key source, transit, and destination for trafficked people, with few successful prosecutions against perpetrators. Between December 2007 and January 2022, an estimated 11,077 human trafficking cases were reported to the South African Police Service.
The prevailing conditions in our country are exactly the same as those that led to Ciudad Juárez being considered the most dangerous city in the world. With political will and investment in law enforcement, the Mexican government was able to rewrite this narrative.
Whether SA can do the same remains to be seen. Until then, we continue the descent into hell.
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