Jules Street, on the south-eastern side of central Johannesburg, is reputedly one of the most crime-ridden places in the city. What better place for an investigative journalist to do a study of crime in the new South Africa.
David Cohen’s account of crime, punishment, law and occasionally even justice is centered on a medium-size business, Jules Street Furnishers, its owners, its employees, customers and those who prey on them. It’s a tale of theft, burglary, hold-ups and ultimately family betrayal, one that creates for this reader a sense that crime is a kind of ecosystem — with different organisms relying on each other for survival, often feeding off one another.
The store owners, Harry Sher and Jack Rubin, display a remarkable resilience in the face of an ongoing struggle to protect their business.
Trying to keep a semblance of law and order are the local police and a dynamic young prosecutor who gave up the chance of a profitable career defending criminals to rather put them behind bars.
The overall picture of this book, though written often with gently ironic humour, is grim. We see in microcosm a picture of a society living beyond its means at times — and with aspirations that for most cannot be fulfilled. In such a situation things erupt suddenly and even normal people are corrupted by need and greed.
Well-written and a page turner, one is left with a sense of unease. If this is Johannesburg, or even South Africa, in microcosm, how long before things really fall apart? I suppose one might console oneself by saying “It’s only Jules Street” — unless one lives on Jules Street.