Gang members help deliver food in Cape Town area

Описание: (18 May 2020) An Australian preacher has recruited members of street gangs to distribute food in a violent and poor neighbourhood of Cape Town during the coronavirus lockdown.
The gang members deliver bread, flour and vegetables to homes and soup kitchens in Manenberg, also known as Cape Flats.
Manenberg is often described as the epicentre of gang violence in South Africa, and the murder rate is dizzying.
The area was created by the apartheid government in the 1960s as a dumping ground for poor non-whites who were evicted from Cape Town's prime land.
Most residents live either in government-built housing blocks called "the courts" or in haphazard houses on unmarked streets.
The virus lockdown has closed industries and left many in Manenberg without work.
Andie Steele-Smith, known as the "gang pastor", says that when gang members were given the chance to do something positive, they grabbed the opportunity with both hands.
The Australian drives around Manenberg with food supplies in the back of his truck.
With him are two rival gang members, Preston and Danny, now working together.
Preston is from a gang known as the Americans. His face mask is emblazoned with the stars and stripes of the US flag.
While offering some protection from the virus, it would normally also put him in danger in Manenberg.
Members of the Americans are usually unwelcome on the turf of the rival Hard Livings gang.
But today he's working side-by-side with rival gang members to deliver food to poor families who are struggling during the lockdown.
They go off, riding in the back of Steele-Smith's pickup truck and trailer, leaping off to carry items to homes and soup kitchens.
The gangs also benefit, getting some food as well as the chance to stay relevant in tough times.
They also seem to enjoy the role of modern-day Robin Hoods.
Still, many of the gang members are drug dealers and killers.
Manenberg resident Cristal van Rensburg has had two of her cousins killed by gang members, but welcomes the pastor's initiative.
She helps direct the distribution on food on the ground.
"We're taking six to eight guys from different gangs, and they take the food from door to door for each family to have something to eat," she says,
Despite its beauty, Cape Town was ranked last year as the 11th most-dangerous city in the world.
According to the Mexico-based Citizen Council for Public Safety and Criminal Justice, which compiled the list, Cape Town had 2,868 homicides in 2018.
That grim number put it second on the list, behind Caracas, Venezuela.

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