School of hard knocks
GETJAP: Theon Koopman GETJAP: Theon Koopman
Several youngsters got the skrik of their lives when they were taken inside Pollsmoor Prison to witness the reality of life behind bars.
Boys and girls from three high schools, a church youth group and an orphanage were taken inside the vier hoeke of Medium C, where they could see prison life first hand.
Media Liaison for Pollsmoor, Lewies Davids, says the prison does this annually during Youth Month.
“We don’t want our youth to turn to a life of crime. So the tour of the inside of the prison, cells and speaking to offenders is to give them a lightbulb moment,” he says.
“We want to give them shock therapy and get to see this for themselves.”
Entering the facility, the youngsters expressed apprehension at all the steal gates being unlocked.
EDUCATION: Lewies Davids, media liason
But it was when they were taken into the courtyard of the notorious prison that their livers really started to quiver.
Jongens were heard shouting: “Hosh, wie’s die? Wat het julle daar vir die broese? Hosh, nommer maak vol hie binne.”
The kids were then taken into a cell built for 36 offenders, but which houses 90 bandiete most of the time due to overcrowding.
They also met offenders working as cooks, who told the youngsters that their daily wages were only R1.20.
Theon Koopman, 23, from Macassar, covered in 26s prison tattoos, says he received an 18-month sentence for assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm.
PAPPA WAG VIR JOU: Kids from three high schools at Pollsmoor
“I have been in and out of jail since the age of 13, but I am only ever in for housebreaking and assault,” he said.
“This prison life is not easy, I am in a prison gang, so I am safe, everything is disciplined, but for those not in a gang (the Franse) this is no game,” he says.
Later, the youth watched a play in which bandiete tell their own stories.
Special Projects Manager for Nicro, Vanessa Padayachee, says the partnership with UCT and Pollsmoor is all about shifting the mindset “of people’s ideas of those behind bars”.
“This production is about giving humanity to people known as criminals,” she says.
The production will also be staged at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 12-14 September.