For the first time in years, Rockey Street, the pulse of trendy Yeoville, is free of drug pushers loitering on corners, writes Janine Lazarus
IT has taken the murder of restaurateur Ridley Wright to clear the streets of pushers who had turned this colourful suburb into the newest drugs mecca of South Africa.
Wright was stabbed in his restaurant, Crackers, last week, and a local man, Nathan Lerube (35), was arrested and has appeared briefly in the Johannesburg Magistrate’s Court.
But in the wake of the murder of Jamaican Ridley Wright, accusations are flying between the police, particularly the drug squad, and local traders.
Each accuses the other of failing to stop the flood of drugs on to Yeoville’s streets. South African Narcotics Bureau (Sanab) commanding officer Colonel Mark Rastopopolus admitted a lot of drug dealers were known to Sanab, “but it’s not possible to trap them. We can’t watch Rockey Street day and night. We try and kill fires here and there but they keep springing up again.”
Roy Turton, who has replaced Wright as vice- chairman of the Rockey Street Traders’ Association, accused police of doing nothing about the presence of drug dealers on the street.
Turton said policemen were seen openly laughing and talking with drug dealers. “A resident in a flat overlooking the corner of Rockey and Raymond streets has seen articles being passed to and from a police car. We assume that police are on the take, but can’t prove it.”
Gauteng police representative Captain Jan Combrinck denied allegations that the impunity enjoyed by the dealers was their reward for pay- offs to the police. “In the year I have dealt with the Narcotics Bureau, not one policeman has been arrested for receiving a pay-off.”
Combrink expressed frustration at the lack of hard evidence implicating the dealers: “We don’t have the authority to arrest someone who is simply suspected of being a drug pusher. We’ve got to open a file on him with sworn statements. In order to bring him before court, we’ve got to arrest him in possession. But when drug dealers are known to us, we arrest them on a daily basis. We do something about most of these merchants.”
Combrinck said dealers “make it their business to know who the police are, that’s why the police can’t just rock up. “We received a lot of information about drug pushers after the stabbing of Ridley Wright which we did not receive before the incident. The police can’t be in a position of waiting for an incident like this before we get co- operation from the public.”
Warrant Officer Smith, the investigating officer on the Wright case, in turn challenged Sanab to get to the heart of the problem: “Sanab must take the pushers on. Drugs are their department.”