Blood and Rage

By Andre Barker

Welcome to Candyland.

Blood and Rage will take you right into the middle of this exotic place. It will open up all the hidden and forbidden secrets of the Flats. It will take you right into the middle of the most violent gang-war the world had ever seen.

It starts out with a terrible double murder on a Metro-train between stations. Here, this is not unusual and something the people take in their stride. The difference is, this time this double murder triggers something no one would ever have anticipated. It spirals out into the bloodiest form of revenge the world had ever witnessed.

Corrupt politicians, criminal minded policemen and violent gangsters; you will meet them face to face inside this maelstrom of rottenness.

Instantly become familiar with the history of the Cape Flats and its unique people.
This is a book that will pull you in right from the start. You will definitely read it more than once. Most
importantly, it will leave a lasting impression on you and will definitely not leave you unmoved.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bakerman Books
• Release date: Jun 30, 2021
• ISBN: 9780463108666

Book preview

Blood and Rage

by

André Barker

Copyright © 2021 André Barker

Published by André Barker@Smashwords

This book contains graphic descriptions of violence

Do not read if you are offended by such

This is a work of fiction.

All the names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents

in this book are either the product of the author’s imagination

or used in a fictitious manner.

Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events

is purely coincidental.

Copyright © 2021 André Barker

Smashwords Edition License Notes

This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your enjoyment only, then please return to Smashwords.com or your favorite retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Foreword

Cape Town, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Wide open beaches, vibrant nightlife, the perfect place for a romantic holiday. But on its fringes lies a place that will forever leave an impression on you. The Cape Flats.

Welcome to the real heart of darkness. Vibrant, vivacious and violent. The word gangsterism was created here, because that is what this place is all about.

Welcome to Candyland.

Blood and Rage will take you right into the middle of this exotic place. It will open up all the hidden and forbidden secrets of the Flats. It will take you right into the middle of the most violent gang-war the world had ever seen.

It starts out with a terrible double murder on a Metro-train between stations. Here, this is not unusual and something the people take in their stride. The difference is, this time this double murder triggers something no one would ever have anticipated. It spirals out into the bloodiest form of revenge the world had ever witnessed.

Corrupt politicians, criminal minded policemen and violent gangsters; you will meet them face to face inside this maelstrom of rottenness.

Instantly become familiar with the history of the Cape Flats and its unique people.

This is a book that will pull you in right from the start. You will definitely read it more than once. Most importantly, it will leave a lasting impression on you and will definitely not leave you unmoved.

Don’t forget to enjoy life

André Barker

Wednesday 30 June 2021

Chapter One

Life will Never be the Same Again

Thursday 6 March 2003 11:03

The boy sees the big shiny knife coming down onto his father's unprotected stomach. The wielder of the knife uses all his power to stab the hard steel deep into the softness of the flesh. The boy sees his father screaming out with pain and shock as the sharp knife cuts through his flesh. The shock of the sharp steel cutting the soft flesh causes an automatic lameness to go through his father, making him to fall weakly to the floor.

Helplessness flows through the boy like an uncontrollable fever. It cumulates in the spinning pit of his stomach downwards, dissipating over his whole body, making his legs feel like two strips of jelly. This as the young boy watches the big shiny knife sinking away into his father's stomach. The horror is absolute. Fear and helplessness falls down over him like a grey darkness. During his twelve years on this earth, he never felt absolute helplessness like this.

Even at that shocking moment, the boy knows that this is a feeling he never wants to feel again

His eyes don't see it, but his mind registers it. The leader of the robbers now comes forward. Madness and blood lust shines in his eye, making it to seem to glow. He has seen blood and now he wants more of it. He pushes the one with the knife away from the boy's helpless father. Then he starts shooting the boy's father with the black pistol in his hand.

As if in slow motion, the boy sees the lead biting into his father's body, making blood spatter everywhere, while leaving huge bloody holes in his father’s unprotected body. His mind becomes a whirlpool of fear, anger and other feelings he never felt before. He feels rooted to the spot and can't make any move to go help his father.

This is the worst day of his life.

In an instant, his life had changed in an unforeseen way. What was supposed to be a happy day for him and his parents now turns into the most tragic moment of his life.

Life will never be the same again. An icy cold hardness forms over his heart to protect him from the strong emotions that now swirls freely through his body and accumulate in his throat.

The African Resistance Movement

The killing of the boy's father on the train is one of the bad occurrences that had become common in the Republic. It all started in 1994...

That was when the African Resistance Movement took over the governance of the country after a four-day long election. Many said the elections were rigged. Nobody ever came forward with proof of that, though. Even if there were proof, no one would have done anything about it in any case. The African Resistance Movement had been fighting the system of Apartheid for many years and everyone wanted them to succeed in establishing a democratic country. A country where everyone would have the exact same rights. So if there were some vote rigging involved, no one was going to do anything about it. It would have spoiled the moment.

With the ARM in control of the country, disaster followed almost immediately. The country went down in an uncontrollable spiral of corruption and incompetence.

There are those who say that the disaster that followed, where all planned in the underground offices in Brussels and London, but of that too, there was no proof.

As the years went by and things in the Republic worsened by the day, many people said it would have been better if the vote rigging was brought to the fore and something was done about it.

With further investigation, it was discovered that the majority of people did not actually vote for the African Resistance Movement, which actually said a lot. The people of the land knew the ARM very well. They knew that the African Resistance Movement was a pathetic resistance organization. A pathetic resistance organization would automatically make for a pathetic government. Nobody, though, knew they would steal the resources of the country as they were doing.

Once the ARM was in power, they started looting the wealth of the Republic before doing anything else. Expert said this looting was done on an industrial scale, never seen before in the civilized world. The Republic was always one of the richest countries in the world, with a highly progressive and efficient government. It had lots of reserves. The ARM now emptied the state coffers and those of State Own Entities at the speed of light. The huge reserves were soon no more.

In all government departments, the highly efficient and experienced staff was immediately replaced by ARM cadres. These cadres were uneducated, inexperienced and incompetent. Most importantly, they were criminal minded.

The president and his ministers said that this was good, when questioned about it.

We are starting on a new path for our people. Therefore, we must start with new people who are not used to the old ways. Our people will learn and everyone will soon bore the fruit of that. The newly installed president said after people started complaining about the inefficiency at State Departments. Some growing pains are to be expected.

The only people who got any fruit were the ARM cadres and their families. The ordinary citizens of the country became poorer and poorer and never gained anything from the Renaissance that was now ruling supreme over their country.

Within a few years of the ARM taking control of government, the economy started its slide downwards to oblivion. Because essential infrastructure was not maintained, once thriving businesses were forced to close down. Train services came to a complete halt due to lack of money and maintenance.

Ordinary businesses had to pay huge amounts of protection money to government officials, the police and even to criminal gangs. That protection money was only for the right to operate without being harassed. This made business unprofitable, workplaces were closed down, and the owners emigrated.

With shops and factories closing down or going out of business, the unemployment figures spiked off the charts.

The powerful electric supplier of the country was stripped bare by the ARM cadres in charge of it. Its huge reserves went straight into the bank accounts of the ARM officials. Before 1994 the Republic had the cheapest electricity rates in the world. Under ARM governance, it now had the highest electricity rates in the world. No maintenance could now be done and soon rolling blackouts became a normal part of the daily life in the Republic. This caused even more businesses to close and people losing jobs.

With factories, shops, heavy industries coming to an end, unemployment became endemic in the Republic. In the old Republic there were more than enough work for anyone who wanted to work. Now work became very scarce, as there were very few places where people could still find work. Then huge bribes had to be paid to those in charge to get the work. If you were not affiliated to the African Resistance Movement, getting a job was in any case out of the question.

The African Resistance Movement was very good at this game. They kept on telling people about the millions of jobs they were going to create, or the millions of houses they will soon build for the people. None of this ever materialized. All the time the ARM ministers, politicians and administrators build themselves huge houses. They own huge farms and bought garages full of the most luxurious cars in the world. This wealth they displayed openly on television programs about them or in the shiny pages of expensive magazines.

Ordinary people became poorer by the day. Prices increased across the board as things became scarcer. The government blamed all of this on the few White people who lived in the country. They encourage the people to take from the Whites that which belonged to them. This made crime to spike completely out of control.

Dangerous Journey

Thursday 6 March 2003 11:03

Due to all of this, the boy's father had to close down his once thriving furniture business. The businesses he used to sell furniture to were all closed down by then and his product was not wanted anymore. He immediately tried to find work, but to no avail. He was a qualified cabinetmaker, carpenter and draughtsman, so he was not suppose to have any difficulty in finding a high paying job. Other factories, like his, were also closed down by that time. Although he was not White, he had the wrong skin color in any case. If the Department of Labor even suspected a company employs White people, there would be huge penalties.

Lucky for them, the boy's mother found work, but it was only for three days a week. They could hardly survive on her meagre salary. They had to move away from the comfortable life-style they had before, in order to live within their means now.

Still reports were coming in on an almost daily basis on how the ARM government was looting the state coffers. Money now had to go to maintain the luxurious life-styles of the ARM elite. Essential services became a second thought.

All of that combined, led to the incident on the train that would change the boy's life forever.

One day his mother's employer told her of a better opportunity where she could earn more money. Her employer and his family were also moving overseas. On the day of the incident his mother was going for this interview in the city. Because they had to sell their cars, they now had to make use of public transport. The train was the most efficient way to travel to the particular destination. It was dangerous, because skollies robbed and even killed people on the trains. However, his father thought that because they were going after the morning rush hour, it would be safe.

Because the interview was in the city, they decided to make a family outing of it. They would travel to the city by train. His mother would first go for her interview, while he and his father waited on her outside the building. Once the interview was done, they would do some window-shopping in the city and then have a snack to eat in the Gardens. Everyone was looking forward to this, because it was a change in their usual hum-drum life.

He was glad when they arrived on the station and there weren't a lot of people there. He didn't like big, noisy crowds. He and his mother waited as his father approached two policemen who were patrolling the platform.

His father seemed upset when he came back.

They didn't want to listen. He told his mother.

"Did you tell them about the skollies ?" His mother asked.

"Yes, I did. I told them to search them before they get onto the train, because it looks like the