Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- Frontispiece
- Love, Grime And Johannesburg
- Scene 1 A Public Square
- Scene 2 The Prison Cell
- Scene 3 The Office of the Chief of Police
- Scene 4 The Prison Cell.
- Scene 5 A City Council Boardroom
- Scene 6 The Prison Cell
- Scene 7 Bokkie's Study
- Scene 8 The Prison Cell
- Scene 9 A Melville
- Scene 10 Office of the Chief of Police
- Scene 11 The Open Door
- Scene 12 The Prison Cell
- Scene 13 A Melville Cafe
- Scene 14 A Melville Cafe.
- Scene 15 The Prison Cell
- Scene 16 Office Corridors
- Scene 17 Bokkie's Study
- Scene 18 A Melville Cafe
- Scene 19 The Prison Cell
- Scene 20 The Doorway
- Scene 21 A Melville Cafe
- Scene 22 The Office of the Chief of Police
- Scene 23 A Cheap Bruma Lake Hotel Room
- Scene 24 The Public Square
Scene 1 - A Public Square
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 June 2019
- Frontmatter
- Miscellaneous Frontmatter
- INTRODUCTION
- Frontispiece
- Love, Grime And Johannesburg
- Scene 1 A Public Square
- Scene 2 The Prison Cell
- Scene 3 The Office of the Chief of Police
- Scene 4 The Prison Cell.
- Scene 5 A City Council Boardroom
- Scene 6 The Prison Cell
- Scene 7 Bokkie's Study
- Scene 8 The Prison Cell
- Scene 9 A Melville
- Scene 10 Office of the Chief of Police
- Scene 11 The Open Door
- Scene 12 The Prison Cell
- Scene 13 A Melville Cafe
- Scene 14 A Melville Cafe.
- Scene 15 The Prison Cell
- Scene 16 Office Corridors
- Scene 17 Bokkie's Study
- Scene 18 A Melville Cafe
- Scene 19 The Prison Cell
- Scene 20 The Doorway
- Scene 21 A Melville Cafe
- Scene 22 The Office of the Chief of Police
- Scene 23 A Cheap Bruma Lake Hotel Room
- Scene 24 The Public Square
Summary
The Chief of Police, QUEENIE DLAMINI, ushers JIMMY ‘LONG LEGS’ MANGANE to centre stage. He is heavily chained in leg irons and handcuffs and is wearing an almost cartoon-like prisoner's outfit. In spite of this, he is still smiling charmingly.
QUEENIE: Citizens, comrades, ladies and gentlemen of the media and the press. As the Chief of Police, champion of law and order, it is my duty to announce the arrest of Jimmy ‘Long Legs’ Mangane - artist of the struggle, hero of the young lions - known to you all as the people's poet!
It with triumph that I deliver to you the man behind these terrible bank heists that have plagued our city!
He, who with booming voice and sweet sweet words, gave us courage in the darkest days, now stands before you arrested! Is it not a most bitter irony!
We have no doubt that he will, in flowing and elegant verse, protest his innocence, shout foul, and claim repeatedly that he is the victim of a conspiratorial plot!
However, we have irrefutable evidence that he is guilty!
Let this be a warning to all those who wish to subvert the new democracy of South Africa! No one is above the law! Evildoers will be pursued and punished!
Jimmy ‘Long Legs’ Mangane, in the name of the President of the new Democratic Republic of South Africa, in the name of our peace loving citizens, in the name of our beloved city of Johannesburg, I arrest you for dangerous and reckless behaviour - lack of respect for the lives and property of others - in short, for robbing a bank with two AK47s and a hand grenade, for the princely sum of Rl5 0000!
JIMMY: Madam Chief of Police, my beloved fellow South Africans, I am innocent! I protest my innocence to the stars!
Surely it is clear to all of you who know me, that I have been framed! I, who gave my all, I who suffered the greatest risk, I, who offered my life for our freedom, I, Jimmy ‘Long Legs’ Mangane, have been wronged!
You wonder what is going on? Believe this - all I did, I did with honour! All I did, I did for my country!
QUEENIE: Tell it to the Judge!
JIMMY: I will!
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- Love, Crime and Johannesburg , pp. 3 - 6Publisher: Wits University PressPrint publication year: 2000