Death Dealing by Ian Patrick Read Free Book Online

emerging
from his slumber, they were on the move, looking for a taxi that could take
them out to the area near Nomivi’s Tavern, where his connections in the street
trade would still be strong. But first they had to go via a few cash dispensers
and try out the pin numbers and bank cards so kindly provided by the two prison guards.

 
    14.45
    There were six men,
ranging in age from twenty to twenty-five years. They were drinking beer and
sniffing glue on the dried veld-brown, almost khaki-coloured grass under a tree
in Albert Park, Durban’s inner-city magnet for homeless people. They were not
especially distinguishable from the many other groups of homeless people in the
park. Some were there to find help with their own drug problems, or to seek
advice on finding employment or shelter. Others were there because they had
nowhere else to go, and they had heard that this was where they might meet
people like themselves. Others were beneficiaries of the Qalakabusha one-stop intervention centre and forum ,
helping homeless people to make a fresh start. This initiative by the eThekwini
municipality, following action requested by the mayor, had enjoyed some success
but there were many people, mainly men, who spurned the offers of assistance
and merely saw the initiative instead as a way of securing the means for a
quick fix.
    Such was also the motivation of the six young men. For them,
the price of a whoonga straw was
considerably cheaper here than it was anywhere else, so Whoonga Park was where they convened on most days. Their own straws
had been depleted, and now they were on beer and glue. They were drinking in
vast quantities. Their loud guffaws and bravura shouts at each other and their
friendly but violent jostling prompted others nearby to move further away. There
was something menacing in their behaviour, and those seated within twenty paces
chose discretion and moved on.
    The park was
surrounded by a collection of medium to high-rise buildings and the casual
observer might have seen little more than the signs of urban decay. Crime had
destroyed property value over the years, and this had been accompanied by
exploitative letting practices and encroaching homelessness, petty crime, and
vagrancy. A closer look might have revealed to such an observer a much more
positive view of diversity and heterogeneity where local inhabitants negotiated
areas of difference and commonality and in some instances established positive
new relationships. There was a rich mix of languages, cultures and ethnicities
in the park. But there was also an underlying sense of danger, as many
considered the possibility that a misplaced word or a misunderstood gesture
might lead to confrontation.
    Some of the
surrounding properties were under legal administration following the original
owners’ failure to maintain the buildings in some cases, or having fallen behind
with levies in other cases. Other buildings were professionally managed and
maintained, generating considerable profits for the owners. There were still some
flashy cars to be seen in the area, not all of them owned by drug dealers.
    The six men displayed braggadocio and machismo with a vocabulary rooted
in violence. Each man tried to out-perform his companions with boasts about
personal prowess. In the way that is all too common in such groups, the
anecdotes commenced with achievements in the sports arena and moved almost
seamlessly from football to memorable street-fights and physical brawls and
from there to sexual conquests. The latter subject, built upon experiences both
real and fantasised, traversed descriptions of extraordinary depravity as the
currency of the discussion was measured increasingly in terms of how violently
some woman had been treated by the speaker. Lascivious laughter peppered the
responses to phrases such as I’m telling
you, she was asking for it and it was
her first time with a real man and I
showed her what fun was really like .
    They conversed in isiZulu