At only 21 years old, the youngest suspect in the Tokai murder case has, according to a close neighbour who wished not to be named, been in and out of rehab for a tik addiction. His father – a warden at Pollsmoor Prison and known as a “spiritual, humble, and soft-spoken man” – removed his son from the Pollsmoor complex where they were residing. Allegedly, the the 21 year old had been caught breaking into houses on prison property. In fact, only two weeks ago was he at the same court (Wynberg) for housebreaking charges. His twin brother is apparently completely different, much like his father.

Following the first appearance of the four accused in the murder of 16-year-old Franziska Blöchliger, members of the Westlake community have spoken out. One resident had this to say:

Westlake is deurmekaar (chaotic)!

Three of the suspects are in their twenties – 21, 24, and 27 – and one is 32-years-old and while one resides in Steenberg, the other three are in Westlake. The same neighbour who commented on the 21 year old, also had things to say about Accused Number One:

In court, accused number one had requested to be held in Pollsmoor Prison because – according to him – at the Wynberg Police holding cells he would not receive food, toothpaste, shampoo, and visitors.

While accused number one addressed the magistrate on his requests, his co-accused, number four, signalled to the judge that number one was crazy.

The neighbour commented on this saying that he was in fact of sound mind and “crazy” was the game he played when in trouble. According to her, accused number one was previously a Rasta who started off his drug abuse with dagga.

If you have only ever visited the golf estates that go by the name “Westlake” and “Steenberg” you probably haven’t clicked that these are actually suburbs in the area surrounding Pollsmoor Prison. Now that the drug wars of the Cape Flats are slowly encroaching on these high-selling property areas in such a sad and tragic way, people will be taking notice and it might just impact the property prices of the area.

The drug wars are not going to be solved by building up a defensive system like the U.S.’s DEA – we need people on the ground who are ready to engage with people using drugs in an attempt to identify the underlying problem. Otherwise, the bloody war that is going down below the M5 is eventually going to take over.

[source: enca]