Central's underworld activities

Donkin Reserve: Pyramid and Lighthouse in Central

Tour of Central’s underworld activities can be quite enlightening, writes LUYOLO MKENTANE

IT IS Tuesday afternoon. I’m with my colleague, photographer Brian Witbooi, at Korsten’s Hiles Street in Port Elizabeth.

We have come to pick up our informant - who’ll only be referred to as George - for an hour-long tour of Central’s underworld activities.

George, who is a community leader working closely with the police to root out child trafficking and prostitution in Central, gets in the bakkie, shakes our hands, before telling Brian to drive towards North End.

We pull over next to an African themed cafe and entertainment centre in Govan Mbeki Avenue.

“You see the this place? This is the recruitment centre where young girls are coerced into prostitution by Nigerians,” says George.

“They put some of them into the sex trade industry here in PE while others get trafficked to cities such as Cape Town, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg”.

George then shifts my focus to an opposite block of flats called House Electron and says: “The girls are then taken to that flat, before being taken to Western Road in Central.”

Suddenly a man wearing a orange T-shirt steps out of the Top Kick shop. George says: “He is one of the traffickers. They use the shop as a front. What better front do you want than this?”

Three more men come out of the shop to join him, who is already curiously looking at The Herald red bakkie “around his turf”.

“You see, they’re suspicious of the bakkie. Let’s rather drive to the Western Road,” George suggests to Brian, who’s trying to take a picture of the place.

On our way to the Western Road, George lets off steam about how every street child in PE “is in danger of being trafficked or getting involved in trafficking”.

“It’s because they’re vulnerable. They’ll do anything for quick money. The traffickers capitalise on this because they know the kids are desperate to make ends meet.”
As we drive passed the Donkin Reserve, famous for its landmark pyramid, George remarks: “This is another hive for illegal activities.”

“I know of bottles that are stuffed in the ground in the park. But when you try to remove them, someone would come to you and ask you: ‘What are you doing with my bottle? They hide drugs in those bottles’.”

In Western Road, he shows me a flat opposite the Budget Meat eatery where “some of the girls who are recruited from North End are kept”.

Brian pulls over in a parking space next to the intersection of Trinder Square and Western Road, where three tough-looking men stand idle - no chatting, whatsoever - with their hands in the pockets.

But when the men start leaving the spot - perhaps intimidated by our presence - George tells Brian to go park next to the Sunningdale flats in Trinder Square, opposite the park.

There he shows me a man whom he calls “Mark”, lurking around the flat.
“Mark is the big ring on your finger in this vicinity. He owns it. Everyone knows him here,” George tells me.

I quickly check the time. It’s 2pm. Brian drives towards Cuyler Street through Belmont Terrace and passed Fort Frederick.

I ask George if the fort is notorious. He says only: “Come here at night.”
Brian connects to Bird Street and George tells us: “You get all the young girls prostituting themselves here at night.”

As if to prove George’s sentiment, Brian drives into Rose Street where our focus shifts to three young women standing under a tree drinking liquor. They point to our direction and beckon us over as Brian drives past.

George then tells Brian to take us to Parliament Street, which is to be the last street of our tour. I anticipate that George will have a lot to say about the street, which is formerly known as a haven for drugs and prostitution.

However, George says of the R16-million revamped street: “We have purged all the lawlessness here. But we won’t rest until we achieved our objective of making all of the Central area clean.”