Unreported World

Cape Town is the darling of the jet set - the backdrop to fashion shoots and a tourist mecca. But as Unreported World reveals, behind Cape Town's ultra-glamorous image, it is now South Africa's murder capital, gripped by the devastating effects of a highly addictive drug which is tearing the city apart.

Thirteen years of freedom in South Africa hasn't translated into prosperity for all, and Cape Town epitomises the problems still faced by the majority of South Africans. Expectations for the ANC government were high, but it's struggled to to raise basic living standards and combat violence in a country where someone is murdered every 30 minutes.

Reporter Sam Kiley and director Paul Kittel begin their journey in Manenberg - one of the squalid townships which are home to most of Cape Town's two-and-a-half-million residents. It's one of the areas of the city where the devastating effects of methamphetamine - locally known as 'tik' - are driving a crime wave that has more than doubled in 12 months.

With unemployment running at 40%, generations of mixed race 'Coloureds' are now in the grip of a 'tik' pandemic, which sees children steal the plumbing from their own homes to fund their addiction.

Cheap and easy to produce from over-the-counter ingredients, 'tik' now threatens to undermine what small gains Cape Town's non-white communities have made since the end of apartheid. Ibrahim Rasool, the Western Cape's premiere, tells Unreported World that the province is in the grip of a 'low intensity war' against the drug.

But he also insists that the drug has not yet spread into the predominantly white and wealthy areas of the city - which tourists are most likely to see.

However, Unreported World discovers that he's wrong; 'tik' is spreading fast into the rich areas. In Long Street, the heart of the city's trendy downtown area, Kiley is able to score some 'tik' within minutes, and in Camps Bay, the luxury resort part of Cape Town popular with tourists for its beaches and bars, he's again quickly able to buy some of the drug. One local barman tells him that an increasing amount of people in the white community are taking 'tik', and it's becoming a real issue in several schools where teenagers are becoming addicted.

As they leave Cape Town, it's clear that that the geographical separation of South Africa's races enforced by apartheid is being broken down by the highly addictive 'tik' and the city faces an uncertain future.

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