Commander Ncube picks up Zandile. He drives at high speed to Durban city centre. Gloria jumps into the car when they arrive outside Sthe’s flat.
“Sthe gave us everything. All we had to do was tell him he violated his parole conditions and he spilled everything. The man who cooks the pills drives a Toyota bakkie with an Orlando Pirates sticker on the right front fender,” says Gloria.
“Good,” says Commander Ncube.
“So how are we going to do this, Commander?” says Zandile.
“We’ll follow him to his drug lab. We have to stop this thing at the source,” says Commander Ncube.
True to Sthe’s word the Toyota bakkie arrives a few minutes later. A man in his forties gets out of the bakkie, a gym bag is slung over his shoulder. He comes out of the flat ten minutes later, gets in his bakkie and drives out of the city.
Commander Ncube, Zandile and Gloria follow the bakkie at a distance. They stay on its tail as it climbs up to Hillcrest and the rural side of Kwanyuswa. The bakkie finally turns into the yard of house. The house is ordinary looking, with something that looks like a storeroom at the back. They watch through binoculars as the man enters the house.
“I don’t think there’s anyone else there. He used his key to open the door,” says Gloria.
“That storeroom at the back; look at those padlocks and chains on it. I bet he cooks his drugs there,” says Commander Ncube.
They watch for a while. The man comes out of the house and smokes a cigarette on the veranda. Then he walks to the storeroom at the back of the house, unlocks the padlocks and closes the door behind him.
Commander Ncube starts the car and drives at breakneck speed. He enters the yard and all three disembark from the car with their guns drawn. Commander Ncube kicks in the door of the outside room.
“Police! Hands up!” they all say.
The sudden sight of three police officers standing in front of him with guns drawn shocks the man. He freezes.
“Hands up!” Commander Ncube shouts.
The man raises his hands. Commander Ncube trips him to the floor and handcuffs him. He pulls him up to a chair and all three police officers stand in front of him. There are buckets of chemicals and pill presses in the room.
“I have money. I’ll pay you!” says the man.
They all just look at him, not trying to hide their disgust. They search the storeroom and discover hidden pills, stacks of money, guns and ammunition. Commander Ncube, Gloria and Zandile are in different corners of the storeroom, discovering more evidence as they search.
Zandile crouches over in a corner with her back to the man, looking through a crate. She hears a sudden sound – the legs of a chair scraping on the bare concrete floor. She turns to look but it is too late. The man has stood up from the chair and is charging at her with his hands handcuffed behind his back. He barges into her, knocking the wind out of her lungs.
He is on top of Zandile, twisting awkwardly, trying to reach for her gun with his handcuffed hands. Zandile wriggles under him, trying by all means to keep her holstered gun away from his fumbling hands. She lands a punch on his jaw, but it’s like she’s hit a brick wall – he hardly reacts. She can feel him stretching, reaching for her gun.
In a split second, as she struggles to fight off the man, Commander Ncube rushes over to them with his gun drawn. Zandile can see that he has his finger on the trigger and is squeezing it. She ducks her head away. A bang rings out, and the drug dealer slumps over Zandile. She quickly wriggles out from under him as blood spurts from the back of his head.
Zandile and Gloria are stunned, as they look at the man lying dead on the floor, blood pooling around his body. Commander Ncube springs into action. “Move! Follow me!” he says to Zandile and Gloria.
Outside, Commander Ncube looks into their shocked eyes.
“Before I call this in, let’s get our story straight. We followed him here. We found the drugs, guns and ammunition! He attacked you!” Commander Ncube says.
Gloria and Zandile looks at each other, still processing what just happened. Zandile tries to answer but it’s like she’s lost the power of speech all of a sudden.
“Hey! Snap out of it! You saw what his poison did to our children! We can’t let them win! This is better. If we’d arrested him, he’d be out on bail in the blink of an eye and back to making pills! Are we clear?”
“Yes, Commander!” Gloria and Zandile say in unison.
“Good. This is part of our job. We do what we have to do to protect our community! Are we on the same page?”
“Yes, Commander!” Zandile and Gloria say again.
***
Zandile and Gloria don’t speak about Commander Ncube’s actions for several days. On their day off, they take their children to a restaurant. While the children are in the play area, Zandile finally speaks about what happened.
“But was Commander Ncube right to shoot that man? There were two of you, you could have subdued him without shooting him. Is it our job to be judges and killers?” she asks.
“I don’t know if the commander was right or wrong, Zee. Is it right that the pills that man cooked turned someone’s child into a cold-blooded killer?”
“It’s a cold world we are living in,” says Zandile.
“Yes. A sad, cold world, Zee.”
“Ayanda lost her life when she was just a child. Anele, who killed her, will be behind bars for the rest of her life. She’s also losing her life, because of a bad choice she made when she was just a child,” says Zandile.
Both women shake their heads, as they watch their own children laugh and play in the sun.
Tell us: What do you think about the commander’s actions? What would you do if you were Gloria or Zandile?