22/08/2026
FOR THREE HOURS, THERE WERE NO GUNSHOTS.
Yesterday, through two friends of mine, Stanley Jacobs from Cape Flats Community and Aviva, we had the opportunity to take 20 young people from Manenberg to the Baxter Theatre to experience something different.
We went to listen to opera. Music that would probably never be played in the township or in our communities. We sat there and listened to these beautiful tenor voices and beautifully orchestrated music, without microphones, just voices being projected beautifully through the theatre.
And while I was sitting there listening, I realised something.
There were no gunshots.
And I was thinking about how easy it is to forget that life is not supposed to be normal with gunshots.
Life isn't normal with gunshots.
But when you live with it long enough, you start to forget what normal actually sounds like.
Because while you're sitting in Manenberg, you are not only listening to the music around you. Somewhere in the back of your mind, you're listening for when the next gunshot is going to happen.
That's not normal.
I cannot stop the gunshots in Manenberg.
I cannot guarantee the safety of anyone in Manenberg.
But yesterday, through the generosity and friendship of Stanley Jacobs from Cape Flats Community and Aviva, we were able to take 20 young people out of Manenberg and give them a different experience.
For three hours, we were able to take them outside of the shots.
For three hours, they could sit in a theatre and listen to something beautiful.
For three hours, they could experience a world that they might not normally experience.
And for three hours, they were safe.
Maybe this is what prevention looks like too.
Not every solution has to start with a police van.
Sometimes it starts with taking a young person somewhere they have never been.
Sometimes it starts with exposing them to something different.
Sometimes it starts with showing them that the world is bigger than the street they live on.
Yesterday wasn't going to solve the violence in Manenberg.
It wasn't going to stop the gangs.
It wasn't going to stop the guns.
But for three hours, 20 young people experienced something different.
They heard beautiful music instead of gunshots.
And maybe, just maybe, they went home with a different picture in their minds of what life can sound like.
Because our children deserve to know that life isn't supposed to sound like gunshots.
Thank you, Stanley Jacobs from Cape Flats Stories, and Aviva, for making yesterday possible.
Sometimes we cannot change the whole community in one day.
But we can change one young person's experience of one day.
And sometimes, that's where change begins.
