Winde: Soldiers are policing the Western Cape because SAPS is a mess

One of my scariest moments as a crime reporter in the 1990s was being shot at by a gangster in the Cape Flats. I was driving alone in a gang-infested suburb when a young boy, who couldn't have been 13 years old, suddenly stepped out of a group and pointed a gun at me as I drew to a stop at an intersection. As he readied to pull the trigger I put my head down below the dashboard and drove, like a blind person, at speed across the intersection, thinking I had a better chance of surviving a car crash than the young boy's bullet. Miraculously, I got through the traffic unscathed. That was just one of many close brushes I had with gangsters. Not all were violent towards me; I was invited for tea on several occasions with a hardened gangland boss, who would update me on the nuances of the turf wars between various groups. I was in his contact book and he was kind enough to call me periodically to give me the heads-up on murders that I'd missed, or read incorrectly, in my daily crime wrap. Nothing has changed since then, it seems, with gangsters ruling the roost and terrorising residents just as they always have in the Western Cape. New premier Alan Winde explains why he has called in soldiers to bring some calm to the province. - Jackie Cameron