841: The Fight for South Africa's Future - When Ordinary Citizens Become Extraordinary Heroes

Brian Nichols  0:00  
discus All right. All right, folks. So like I said in the intro a little bit different have an episode today. Today we're gonna be doing a sit down with Nina's canine Reaper, which obviously is not his real name. But he's hailing down from South African Los Altos been going down in South Africa and not good stuffs. So we need to really pay attention, even though it is halfway around the world of what's happening, especially when we see that what's happening halfway around the world does impact us here at home. So to discuss all that's been happening down in South Africa, joining me here in the show, yes, canine Reaper, if that is your real name, Ken, welcome The Brian Nichols Show how you doing?

K9 Reaper  0:42  
I'm doing great. Thank you so much for having me on. I really appreciate it. Absolutely.

Brian Nichols  0:47  
And I'm glad we were able to get this conversation set up. I know you've been just absolutely swamped down in South Africa doing a lot of the stuff we're going to talk about today. And that is trying to keep the peace, trying to avoid the the escalation of intense, you know, conflict of intense negative sentiments between races and socio economic statuses. There's a lot going on here behind the scenes in South Africa. And frankly, man, I think a lot of folks in America just aren't aware of what's happening in South Africa, how the heck we got to where we are today. So just to kind of give us the groundwork, you could gain on give us a little bit of a background. Where are we right now in South Africa? How did we get here? And where are we headed?

K9 Reaper  1:31  
Well, essentially, to kind of your man, that's a long story. But to cut a really long story short, and hopefully not bore you too much. Essentially, we've gone from obviously, having really bad crime and things like that to what is now essentially targeted crime. That's, that's really getting out of control. So we have everything you can name it from copper, cable theft, cash and transit heists, violent home invasions, targeting of essential infrastructure, such as cellphone towers, water based infrastructure, electrical waste infrastructure, violent hijackings, career events getting hit, I mean, you can really take your pick. And obviously, each of those little sections has its own little ecosystem that falls under it. We've got some observers to, which is your illegal gold miners. That's something that you don't essentially find anywhere else in the world. It's almost exclusive South African term, I'm not saying that no one else has illegal gold miners, but ours are sort of different. That would spicier than your average guy panning for gold in a river. So yeah, we've got all of that. But as we'll cover when we go along, we also have communities who are pushing through all of us to try and make things better. So that will be a great takeaway at the end of the show, if people can understand that, yeah, things are bad. But damn hell, doing our best to make it better. Let's put it that way.

Brian Nichols  3:04  
Well, in that rate, their canine is the exact focus of the show, right? Like the show is not just to focus on the problems we see in the world, because if we were just to do a show on that we'd be having a lot of problems we'll be discussing, but namely, we want to focus not just on those problems, but also the solutions that we can bring to the table here. Right. And that is exactly why I wanted to have you on the show. Because when we're talking about these, these very real issues, I think a lot of folks they just kind of grow numb to the the growing mountain of problems, because they have their own problems in their lives. And they're looking for, you know, some some type of magic pill to make things better. And the reality is, there is no magic pill, it is people like you who are going out and actually putting in the blood, sweat and tears. And I'm gonna emphasize the blood part here in this conversation for what you actually are doing in terms of helping make South Africa more of a secure place. But let's kind of talk about the solutions, right? That is where we want to have some some maybe glimmer of hope that we can bring to people not just in South Africa, but across the world because they're hearing the story and definitely raises some red flags. So let's maybe go back to what you guys are seeing and know you mentioned a lot of the different areas where we're seeing some social breakdown you're seeing you know, obviously more nonviolent crimes turning into violent crime so what are you finding your role there as canine you know, you're you're down in South Africa, you you're talking beforehand, this is a beautiful area you find yourself living in its home sweet home to you, but do you see it being home sweet home for the foreseeable future? And what is your role in trying to help maintain that?

K9 Reaper  4:38  
So I'm not going anywhere? Let's put it that way. I love my country. I absolutely love this country. It is. I know a lot of people say yeah, there's lots of beautiful places all over the world that South Africa is just it's gorgeous. You can go into the right places meet the right people do the right things. You know, you can live your life, raise a family, do whatever you want to do. To succeed, prospects cetera. So with that being said, that is what our role essentially is, yeah. So firstly, I'm not alone in this canines are a hero, I'm not Ironman running around doing his thing, essentially, I'm one of countless other individuals, I'm just lucky enough to have the platform to showcase it. So I just want to cover that if that's fine. So with that being said, essentially, you've got all your little community clusters and people that are trying to improve things through community self sustainment management, improvement, role playing all these different things. So role playing on my side of the world, essentially means community policing, where you as a community member actively go out on patrols. It's a concept I've been trying to explain to a lot of my American friends, because the moment they hear the word patrol, the first thing they think of as militia. So yeah, so we're not that we are community based, we still follow the rule of law. So it's important that we add the T's and C's, we still follow the rule of law. And we still answer to South African government or policing structures, whatever is in place, when if there's not anything in place before it. And we try to fix things. We support the police, where we can we support search and rescue teams, we support even the bloody military, if they go on operations, and they need help. We support them. Not just with manpower, but with equipment, supplies, intelligence, training tactics, you know, there's a whole lot of things that sort of going to what we do, but really what it comes down to is community based infrastructures that are doing their best to work hand in hand and assist the official structures that are in place with regards to law enforcement, government, and that sort of thing. So that is what we are trying to do. We're not out to replace the police, we're not out to be gung ho and run around the Cowboys. I know we're living in the wild west. But we're not running around to doing any of that just yet. We are just, essentially, and people hate it when I say this part of it. But it's the truth. At the end of the day, we're essentially putting our lives on the line to try and make a better country for the long term. That's really all we want. So that's us. And we're just going to keep going. Honestly, people unfortunately do get injured, or they actually unfortunately, passed away due to whatever's occurred on a patrol and things like that. But we partake in the relevant training and things like that. And we stay alert. And yeah, we're just going to keep going. It's really all we can do. Well,

Brian Nichols  7:52  
so canine I think a lot of folks are hearing this and they just say, Well, why didn't South Africa get to the point where they need folks like you right to go out and try to help bring back some semblance of civility and normal normalcy. Right? So based on where, where you guys have gotten to and where you are today. I mean, what are the prospects for South Africa actually look like?

K9 Reaper  8:13  
Well, look, essentially, firstly, we got here because of a lack of proper, proper government oversight, government management, government control, whatever people want to call it. Governance, I suppose is actually the word here. And yeah, just the complete lack of anything from the official powers that be has led us to this point where civilians such as myself for getting in our cars, driving around from eight o'clock at night or six o'clock at night until 456 am in the morning, losing friends along the way, things like that happen. And going back home to our family and loved ones knowing that we did a little bit just to make our neighborhood at least a little bit better for the future. What the future actually looks like right now. That's another like, huge, long story we can go into one day, but essentially where we are right now is can I swear on your show? Okay, okay. This is just out of respect. So okay, so basically, someone coined the term an academic fund, I need funds versus but essentially we're fucked but free. That's really what it comes down to. So in the US, you guys, you got way too much oversight. The government's digging in and you know, they really grabbing you graphs from every angle. For us. We have nothing. There is zip, zilch. There is yes, there are hundreds of laws and stuff in place that target certain individuals and cultures and whatever. But even those really sort of only help certain a few. For the rest of us. It's not a stage where they're not even fixing the roads and stuff, really. So we just do it ourselves. You know, for example, they aren't catching the guys on the street. They're all grabbing copper cable, and they say it's impossible yet I can go out at any time at night, and almost be guaranteed a success because I know where to go and what to look for and things like that. And that's as a civilian. So what the future is looking like, is we need more communities to come together and accept that you're paying your taxes really for absolutely nothing, for literally nothing. And people can have to start just getting involved. That's, that's really where we're going. And if they don't do that, I can tell you now if we have this conversation in 10 years time, at the rate things are going right now, there will be absolutely nothing left. And I really, really mean that. And a lot of people like to talk that up on Twitter, and they're like, Yeah, okay, South Africa screwed in five years, blah, blah, blah. But the right things are going now like for example, all the little towns that surround the bigger towns, they've all been collapsed. There's no water, the sewage running through the streets, they don't have electricity off the time. Now finding that the average time, like for example, let's take a big city like Johannesburg. They're getting overrun by vagrants, squatters, land grabs, there's a new increase as well with violent home invasions, but they hit your property, and they literally steal the copper cable on the way out of a violent home invasion. I mean, even for someone like myself, reading reports like that I'm like, Okay, that is for me something different cases of you go on holiday, you come back home, and your whole property strip, they've taken the geezer out the roof, they have removed the copper piping, they've ripped the DV board out and taken all the electrical hiring from outside the house, they remove the taps, anything that can be scrapped, essentially, you come back after three days, four or five days on all of that, and your house is completely cleaned out. So the future is essentially, basically what my Twitter account is trying to show people without being too negative and saying, We're all gonna die and blah, blah, blah, because we're not, but it's gonna be a hell of a rough ride.

Brian Nichols  11:59  
So people are really quick to that, right? Like, what does the role of race relations play here in South Africa with the chaos that we've been seeing? Because I'm, you know, obviously watching this third party, hundreds 1000s of miles away. So everything that I'm getting from information, and frankly, what everybody else who's listening today is getting for information is all coming through third hand parties. Right? So so with that being said, what does it look like when you're talking about these racial relations? And maybe even take it a step further? Also, you're talking about socio economic factors? How does that contribute to the the, I guess, really destruction of the South African society. And to your point earlier, the kind of question marks for South African relevancy really going forward into the future.

K9 Reaper  12:51  
So with regards to race relations, it's a very spicy topic, the side of the ocean, you'll get your individuals or your parties that will say, if I may be so forward and honest, that all blacks are to kill white people. And there's a whole lot of really weird shit that's going on with regards to race relations, and what you're seeing people physically type up and pop up on the screens and things like that. They were all honestly, again, if I may be so forward. Firstly, yes, they are certain political parties, such as the EFF who openly sing songs such as kill the Buddha, shoot to kill and all these sorts of things, which is obviously aimed at the single demographic, white, South African farmers booze. And you'll see that a lot of that extends to just white people in general, unfortunately, with regards to that song and what they're trying to do there. But with that being said, for me, personally, this is only obviously my opinion, that comes down to them and the political party and what they're trying to do there. They are singing about genocide in the population, and it's accepted, unfortunately. So we must keep that in mind. But with that being said, I often go into the worst townships in this country, exclusively black townships. And from my point of view, I've never once felt afraid. Yes, I've gone in in full body armor and we've gone into cysts, the population within those times that you physically gone into system, whether it's children that have been murdered or or mothers giving birth because the ambulance is too scared to go in because they get shot and robbed. So by the way, all these little things like that. So trying to multitask a apologies. So with all of that being said, you will always have unfortunately, individuals pushing for call it violence in terms of color spectrum. There are other individuals who look at it and realize that with all Honestly, it's sort of just fringe ish groups on the edges and stuff that we're doing. Yes, they've got a lot of grab and a lot of control. It's not beat around the bush there. But I haven't yet gone into Township, exclusively black Township and thought to myself, I'm gonna get skinned alive here in a second. So that's just my little bit. I know, that's gonna irritate a lot of people, because a lot of people want nothing more than for me to turn around and say, but there's a white genocide and things like that. But

Brian Nichols  15:27  
yeah, well, and that's what we hear. Right? That's why I wanted you to kind of articulate what you're actually seeing. Is it what we hear on on the social media and stuff? Or is it what you're actually saying today in the show? Right. And it seems like it's just more of just indiscriminant chaos, right. Indiscriminate bloodshed now, have there been white farmers, for example, had been targeted? Yes. You know, are there echoes from the past that are carrying forward today? I think obviously, yes. But it's not so much that this is a you know, a singular focused, white genocide. To your point, right. This is across the board, just when a society starts to collapse, these are the things that happen.

K9 Reaper  16:09  
Right. So I'm glad that you sort of covered it in that direction. People look, honestly, no one's being pulled out of a cause yet in traffic and being murdered with bangers because they're white. We're not looking at Hotel Rwanda on a South African point of view, you know, there's no radio artioli blaring in the background and etc, etc. Yes, people are being targeted in certain aspects because of the white skin. Yeah, I'll have to say it that way. But in my point of view, there's currently no ongoing genocide right now. Yes, we are seeing the hallmarks for it. We are seeing all those little things add up as we go along, it sort of lead to these things. But we're not seeing it anything to that level yet. If I may be so forward and blank. I know it's going to irritate and put off a lot of people, but it's just the truth. And to those individuals. I'll happily take them on a patrol any day, I'll take them into a township and they'll see you're not yet you might get robbed. Unless you unless you go in with guys like myself, but you're not going to get murdered because of the color of your skin yet, at least.

Brian Nichols  17:25  
Why do you think the government is sitting on its hands not really coming in to help at all with this?

K9 Reaper  17:32  
honest question, because they can't, they do not have the capacity to do so. Adding to that story, to give you an example. We have special forces bases, sa NDF Special Forces base that was overrun by squatters, who stripped the base of all its copper internals, copper piping, geezers electrical infrastructure, taps, Special Forces base with active duty personnel. The July riots of 2021 we I was a huge active role player with regards to that man, I wish I wish he had given me a shot then I could have live feed everything to you when they deployed this NDF and within a few days, they essentially ran out of food and supplies and to go back to base in their own country. So the government physically cannot they cannot assist. You have instances of a single police when they are asked to patrol like 500 kilometers worth of road or 800 kilometers worth of road. How is that possible? A police van Hilux Bucky? You used to call it a truck or whatever, with two guys in that they go on a single practice shoot maybe once a year, and they shoot 1015 rounds, if at all. That is she sees. So this is how bad things really are. And that that is why we are picking up the slack and doing our absolute damn best to fix things.

Brian Nichols  19:01  
It's interesting, really quick canine because you talk about how the government really can't do anything. And you guys are the ones who have to pick up the slack. Do you think and I want to get your genuine perspective here. Do you think that this is actually a better solution that the government can't do these things? And it is kind of pushing folks like you to fill in the gaps like is this? I don't want say a best case scenario but based on kind of the proverbial crap hitting the wall. I mean, is this kind of like the best outcome in terms of actually dealing with the nonsense?

K9 Reaper  19:39  
I hear you? So again, fucked but free. Right now. With regards to what's happening for the African where we're going to list the government gets involved, the better. Again, they can't there's absolutely nothing. They can't even maintain water based infrastructure. I cannot. We are losing. Man. I wish I'd want to check up those stats for you. But it's really just prospective here. We try and think of a scenario. Let me scroll through my account. As you talk, yeah, let me just see if my profile could be because

Brian Nichols  20:18  
it's Yeah. So you hear you scroll, you scroll, because you know, I did some research before we we sat down today.

K9 Reaper  20:25  
I'm glad I wasn't sorry. No, no,

Brian Nichols  20:28  
you're good. Well, I was just I was shaken by how this has been more or less the same story in South Africa that's being told, just like 3040 years continuously, just in different versions, right. It seems like you guys have really been ping ponging back and forth, who's who's causing the chaos. And right now it seems like you're your spot where now now, you know, the chaos is really starting to boil up, it's going more towards not anarchy? Well, yeah, I guess more or less anarchy, right, government really can't do anything. And relying on folks like you to fill in those gaps.

K9 Reaper  21:01  
It's civil unrest at the end of the day, it's, that's essentially what it boils down to. So a lot of people look at what I post and they say to me, but that's just a protest. But you've got protesters, we're doing air quotes here, whatever. burning tires in the middle of the road, they've dug a trench in front of those tires, so your vehicle cannot cross that barrier. And then they've piled those stones on the other side of the burning tires, you don't see them to the smoke and the flames. And then behind that, they still got rocks placed at random intermittent intervals, with any form of debris that they can find trees, bigger rocks, and boulders, anything they can get, they've done that, and you approach that with your vehicle, they will pull you out of your car, and they will move to you straight. So you know, people look at that. And it's like, those are not protesters guys, that is civil unrest that is. I don't wanna say it's barbarism and things like that, because then people start associating things with color again, as things start getting ridiculous. But what it boils down to is it is civil unrest. I mean, you can go through my timeline, you just type in civil unrest, and they are 1000s of videos. Literally, just with the South Africa favorite, we can find a tire petrol and matches anywhere in his bloody country, no matter where you are. And we will say a little fire in the middle of the road, and we will just cause chaos and destruction. But we won't do it on weekends because we tend to not working. So we'll do it Monday to Friday, because we need a day off but we're not going to do it on a Saturday Sunday. So yeah, fun.

Brian Nichols  22:33  
Do you do you ever get canine? Do you ever get any any pushback from government in South Africa? Like hey, you know, you and your guys, you're gonna go and you know, help you go into a community. Like you said, you're in body body armor, ladies need help delivering babies, whatever it may be, right? Do you ever get any pushback from government saying hey, no, go away, we got this or, Hey, you're you're starting to overstep a little bit, stuff like that.

K9 Reaper  23:00  
They have recently tried to a projects which kicked off in the last five ish or so years called the community in blue. So we've got structures here community community based structures, called Community Policing forums, CPF, for short. And the government essentially wanted all external first responders such as myself to fall under the community in blue programs as a means in a way of controlling the whole system. The kickback was massive, it failed immediately. And that was that. In 99.9% of cases, you can arrive on scene, you're talking about government kickback, now, you can arrive on scene, you can assist the police officer, as long as you look the pot and you approach them professionally and with respect. You can assist them they will nine times out of 10 they will not say no, obviously all things dependent on what the situation is. While we've been on patrols many, many times, not countless times, actually. Where I've been on patrol intercepts, Van stops the vehicle and says they need help follow them. Sometimes you want to foot patrol and they say please jump in my van, I need you to support me. And if we get to one time, the JPD lady, which is our traffic police essentially JPD she had knocked off duty and she was heading home in a police van, got a call for immediate support. And she decided it's a duty so she's going to help turn that we evolved home invasion. And she saw some patrol and stopped the van and asked us please can we open the van and supporter so you do the right thing? And the first thing you say is Ma'am, are you giving me an instruction to climb in your vehicle and assist you? The South African laws force understand every male from age I think it's 16 or 18 up until the age of like 60 or 65 or something must assist an official within reason when requested if you're able bodied. You said yes. So we hopped in the van we go and help the rest of two dudes and that was that and she had actually knocked off so So yeah, that mean with regards to kickback? There's almost none. Honestly, there might be a little bit for the gods who go very like gung ho. But again, we're actually following the law. Assisting law. That's really what it is. We don't want to be seen as cowboys and things like that. That's not how it looks. Yes, they are. shootouts, and people do die and is violent and things like that. But yeah, we carry on.

Brian Nichols  25:25  
So as we're getting towards the tail end here, canine one of the things that we've been talking about today, just it really rhymes with a past episode we've had here actually past guests, and we've had him on a few times, Brian Stern, from Project Dynamo. And what they do over at Project Dynamo is they'll take areas where there's civil unrest, natural disasters. So the examples we've talked about most recently, most recently in the show, Ukraine, Afghanistan, Maui, when we had the Maui fires, and over in Hawaii, right now, we're talking about Haiti right here in the south of our border. And what Brian and his team over at Project Dynamo do is they will fly out to these respective areas, when the US government pretty much just drops the ball. And they you know, we have American citizens or what have you that are stuck or in need of help. And they're the ones who go in. They're the ones who either, you know, are the folks getting people out or helping trying to calm things down. Yeah. And, yeah, it's so cool. And to hear, you know, what they do and what you guys are doing, it's like, same church, different pew, because right now, I think we're very much at a spot and this isn't respective to South Africa, or, you know, America, this, I think, is a global issue where we, as people are realizing that no one's coming to save you, you need to be the person, you need to be the community, the resource to help actually create the change you want to see and what you're doing in South Africa. Yeah, what Brian's doing for Project dynamo, like you're seeing where government is dropping the ball, or in your case where government literally doesn't have a ball to drop, and you're now entering in offering some solutions. Right. And that, right? Yeah, and that that is exactly what we talked about when we started is that we, if we're going to have any, you know, ray of sunshine at the end of this episode, it is that folks like you are creating solutions, you're creating opportunities, where anybody who would normally look at this and just throw their hands up and say, We're aft, it's a failed state, like, what are we going to do? You're saying, no, no, this is home, I'm gonna, I'm going to treat this. Like it's home because it is home, I'm going to I'm going to go out of my way, and do I need to do to protect my home? I think that is a different conversation versus what so many folks have been really conditioned to be the normal response. And that is wait for someone in government to come down on a white shining horse to save the day. That's not reality. You're showing them and you're actually helping create some solutions to that. So that's my final thoughts for today. Canine What do you have first and your end?

K9 Reaper  27:55  
Look, thank you so much for having me on. I must apologize. I sound obviously because I am. It's been a long, long couple nights. Look, I'll finish it off. Usually,

Brian Nichols  28:04  
my guests are half asleep, because it's me. So at least it's not me.

K9 Reaper  28:11  
So So just to finish it off, on my end, the author corner in South Africa, the Buddha, especially you have a saying, and they like to say, once is here on the bow, which is means react to build. And that is what we're here for. So we will as civilians in citizens of South Africa, we will continue to do what we have to within the rule of law until there's no rule of law left and then we will continue to do what we have to and adjust the circumstances.

Brian Nichols  28:40  
All right, canine I really appreciate you joining us today. And to your point, I know you gotta get some Z's because you are running on fumes there and you're doing you're doing the Lord's work, man, you're out there, you're fighting the good fight. You're showing folks how to lead by example. And you're actually making things better for your community. And that is exactly what we need to see more folks actually do and that is Be the change you want to see. Don't wait again for that proverbial, you know, white knight on the shining horse to come down and save the day like you You can be the hero in your own story. And frankly, you're going to be the hero in somebody else's story too. So with that being said, really been a great conversation canine thank you for joining us and folks, if you got some value from today's episode, we're gonna include all the links so you can go ahead and follow canine see all the different things he's doing down there in South Africa what's actually taking place from him himself. He airs on his his Twitter page EX page scuze. Me. So we'll make sure we include all those links there in the show notes up any final thoughts or words here, okay, now as we wrap things up,

K9 Reaper  29:42  
look, anyone else from the world that sitting back and watching and thinking to themselves that someone's going to come save them, as you said, nobody's coming? Okay. So all they could do is get up off their butt start training, start looking out for the neighborhoods and their community start building a little bit giving back themselves. Things will come things will come right So yeah,

Brian Nichols  30:01  
rock and roll canine thanks for joining in folks stick around. I'm gonna go ahead and wrap things up here afterwards but this is going to wrap up our conversation with canine out of South Africa there. So please again go ahead and support him on Twitter. If you can, please go ahead and share today's episode We'd also love it. With that being said, we'll talk to you next time.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai