VIEW FROM ABROAD
Nigerians Fight Crime in South African Coastal City
Nigerians in South African city are trying to reduce crime on Parliament Street to help business and customers. "Most Nigerians in South Africa are not drug dealers; we are businessmen, professionals, like doctors. But when South Africans hear you are Nigerian, you can see the suspicion in their eyes.
A cosmopolitan crowd, dressed in multicolored finery, shimmies the night and early morning hours away in one of the many chic bars that line the street. During breaks from dancing, the sweating, smiling revelers sip at gaudy cocktails and nibble at plates of food.
But the vibe in Parliament Street, one of South Africa’s most historic areas, in the coastal city of Port Elizabeth – wasn’t always as “fantastic” as this, says Etienne Barkhuysen, owner of a local coffee shop.
Up until recently, businesses like his had to shut their doors long before midnight because of the threat of armed robbers. Drug dealers and prostitutes lined Parliament Street – named in the 1800s after it hosted the first sitting of the Cape Province parliament. Young men, fueled by alcohol consumed in their parked cars, battled one another with bottles and fists in vicious street fights. The once vibrant, multiracial, multicultural restaurants, nightclubs and bars closed, relocating to safer, cleaner areas. Economic stagnation hung heavy over the area.
But now, although signs of the previous decay are still evident, the “boom times” are back for Parliament Street, Barkhuysen says enthusiastically. Businesses have reopened. The streets are no longer littered with broken glass, blood and used condoms. Instead, they’re lined with flowering plants and sparkling new signs advertising parties. People in search of entertainment throng the venue nightly, no longer afraid of criminals.
Central to the rejuvenation of Parliament Street is a group of Nigerian immigrants, who took action when locals accused Nigerian criminals of turning the area into a no-go zone.
‘Amazing’ Nigerians ‘clean up the street’
In an initial attempt to manage the crisis, owners of businesses hired private security officers to patrol the street. But the crime continued. “There were some muggings and stuff,” says Barkhuysen. “But the biggest problem was people running after cars, jumping in, trying to sell drugs. A lot of people felt threatened by it; they felt they were being hijacked. And also people in the street being grabbed and (offered) drugs…. Unfortunately, a lot of the crime was being perpetrated by Nigerians.”
Barkhuysen, as chairman of the Parliament Street Business Forum, approached some “respected” Nigerians who also owned enterprises in the vicinity, in a final bid for help to stop the chaos.
“When people started running away from Parliament Street, it didn’t only affect the white (South African) business owners; it also affected the Nigerians that owned businesses in this area,” says Chukwudi Obiezu, a Nigerian entrepreneur.
“So we had to get involved,” says the burly man, who’s also chairman of the Port Elizabeth branch of the Nigerian Union of South Africa, an organization formed to support Nigerians living in Africa’s largest economy. “We became sick and ashamed of always hearing that it was Nigerians doing these terrible deeds,” he says.
Barkhuysen credits Obiezu and his Nigerian partners for “cleaning up” the street. “They were amazing,” says the South African. “They turned things around very fast.” Obiezu adds, “If you’re coming around and we see you doing (crime), we get you and we hand you over to the police – whether you’re a Nigerian or not.”
But sometimes the Nigerian Union’s intervention involves far more than a simple “hand-over” of a suspect to the authorities…. Sometimes, says Obiezu, he and his fellow crime fighters have to get “heavy handed” with alleged criminals.
Nigerian crime fighters ‘go above the law’…. But crime continues
A Parliament Street restaurateur, who wants to remain anonymous, comments, “The Nigerian Union guys don’t mess around. If they catch a criminal, they don’t play. They are very ruthless – especially if the suspect’s one of their own nationals who is dirtying their names with crime….”
Obiezu acknowledges that he and his colleagues “fight fire with fire” in their war against criminal gangs in Parliament Street.
“You don’t take a knife to a gunfight,” he says, a steely look of resolve hardening his eyes. “Sometimes talking does nothing.”
Obiezu continues, “To an extent, we were able to convince the police to let us clean our own people our own way. So the police gave us just a little power – more than what we should have. The police allow us to use a bit of force. We are allowed to go a little bit above the law, to weed the bad eggs out. And when the criminals experience this, they run like the cowards they actually are.”
But some drug dealers haven’t “run.” When VOA visited the area, we were approached by a young man who identified himself as “Mike.” He said he was “from Lagos.” In the sheltered darkness of an abandoned building, “Mike” displayed an assortment of narcotics – including cocaine, ecstasy and marijuana – and offered the drugs for sale.
According to veteran Parliament Street security guard Mary Van Rensburg, the district’s still “far from safe. Sometimes in the night, things are very bad here. People are getting robbed here,” she says. Van Rensburg herself has fallen victim to the criminals. “Two young men and a grey-haired old man took my money. They had knives,” she recalls. “They caught me off-guard….”
But Van Rensburg maintains that “by far” the biggest problem in Parliament Street remains drug dealing. She voices no doubt as to who the perpetrators are. “The Nigerian criminals are still here,” she says, whispering. “It’s them who bring in the drugs.”
The neon-bibbed security guard says she witnesses Nigerian criminals doing “very terrible things.
But I keep my mouth shut. I am very scared of the Nigerians. They are a very vicious nation. If you tell the police about them, they will hurt you.”
(This report was first published by the Voice of America, March 7, 2010)
