The street
Subtitle: exposing a world of cops, bribes and drug dealers
By: Paul McNally
Publisher: Pan Macmillan South Africa
Published: 2016
Place of publication: Johannesburg
Language: eng
Number of pages: 323
ISBN-13: 9781770104563
Subjects: Police corruption; Police misconduct; Police; Complaints against; Drug dealers; Corruption; Crime
Description: Raymond is a shop owner on Ontdekkers Road who takes a baseball bat to the dealers when they break his rules. He systematically records in his notebook the police officers who come - all day, every day - to collect their bribe money from the dealers, and is looking for someone to trust. Khaba is a middle-aged police officer who wants a quiet life but whose demons will not leave him in peace. He is trying to regain his trust in what he once regarded as an honourable profession. Wendy is a petite, ageing police reservist who can handle an R5 rifle with confidence, but not the sadness that accompanies her in her daily life - the loss of her police officer husband, brutally murdered by a drug lord, and the addiction that has her young son in its grip. She is looking for respect and affirmation and for her own life to have meaning. Through different paths, the lives of Raymond, Khaba and Wendy intersect on the street as their attention is focused on the current power couple - a drug dealer named Obi and his police officer wife, Lerato. Seemingly untouchable, Obi and Lerato terrorise Ontdekkers, and in the process upset the balance of this already lawless world.