The mass shootings of young people in impoverished areas and targeted assassinations of professionals are becoming all too frequent. In most of these killings organised criminal networks appear to be at play. Indeed, organised crime has increasingly emerged as an existential threat to the chance of South Africa becoming a successful and prosperous nation.
While the Madlanga Commission of Inquiry and the parliamentary ad hoc committee investigate how organised criminality has infected our criminal justice system, Cabinet has determined that extraordinary measures are needed to tackle the many threats posed by organised crime, of which gang violence in the Western Cape is a long-standing example.
Gang violence is nothing less than a social and economic emergency that ruins lives, undermines development, erodes trust in institutions and frustrates communities that long for peace and stability.
While long linked to drug dealing, illegal gambling and the nightlife economy, Western Cape gangs have branched out to an ever-widening range of criminal activities, and are linked to national and transnational organised crime networks.
Gang bosses, their associates and enablers have become increasingly rich and powerful, allowing them to pass themselves off as successful and legitimate business owners, while their real objectives are to infiltrate government procurement processes, hijack public infrastructure projects and influence political processes.
Read more: Cachalia outlines strategy to combat Western Cape gangsterism and extortion
The recently announced plan to tackle gang violence in the Western Cape and other provinces is therefore a necessary and important development. The plan, developed under the joint leadership of the ministers of justice and police, recognises that this crisis not only requires national-level resources and coordination, but a far more targeted and multi-agency approach than has been attempted to date.
The new anti-gang strategy recognises that gang violence has to be treated as more than a local policing issue. Gangs in Cape Town and surrounding towns are embedded in regional networks. They traffic drugs and firearms, launder money and collaborate with criminals beyond provincial and national borders. A coordinated national response, bringing enhanced intelligence, policing, justice and financial crime capabilities into play, is therefore necessary.
While isolated raids and reactive policing have led to some disruption, with many arrests and confiscations of firearms and drugs, they have not managed to disrupt criminal networks in a lasting way. This is well recognised and therefore the new plan aims to permanently disrupt these networks, by targeting a range of actors in gang hierarchies.
Fortunately, we are not starting afresh, but building on an array of impressive skills and capabilities in our law enforcement agencies. The new anti-gang plan seeks to build on this capability by bringing together additional agencies including the Financial Intelligence Centre, the South African Revenue Service and the Special Investigating Unit. There is already engagement with key private sector and civil society partners who have skills and resources that are in short supply within the government.
The objective is to identify and seize the financial and other assets of the leadership and command structures of the gangs behind the violence, as well as target the foot soldiers who are paid to deal in drugs, hold firearms, extort small businesses and carry out killings.
There are already a number of cases in our courts involving high-profile people allegedly involved in organised crime. They include alleged underworld gang boss Nafiz Modack and 14 co-accused who are facing 122 charges including murder, money laundering, extortion and fraud. In September, Modack was convicted of corruption involving the police and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Bigger strategy
While the initial phase of the plan is focused on Western Cape gangs, it is part of a larger anti-organised crime strategy. Additional funding has been made available from the Criminal Asset Recovery Account to ramp up the state’s capability to tackle organised criminal networks. This will support other teams tackling criminal networks that are undermining key sectors necessary to support economic growth, such as construction, mining and transport.
A key component is to ensure the plan is infused with independent, high-quality research that maps gang structures, along with the establishment of a system that evaluates interventions, tracks outcomes and supports evidence-based decision-making. This will enhance accountability of those tasked with implementing the plan, and enable better community-level engagement about what has been achieved.
Communities are not passive beneficiaries, but are recognised as active participants in creating safety. Civil society and community-based structures, along with religious groups and business associations, need to be given platforms for engagement and participation in areas where the plan will be implemented.
This plan leans heavily on law enforcement with a focus on the disruption and dismantling of gangs. However, history teaches us that crackdowns without additional and meaningful social interventions can create vacuums that other violent actors will seek to fill. That pattern has been evident in parts of the Western Cape for decades: you remove one kingpin, and another rises; you weaken one gang, and others move in and fight to claim additional turf.
Many young people who join gangs do not do so out of a desire for criminality. They are responding to very real material needs, social alienation and a search for identity, protection and status. High unemployment, weak schooling outcomes, limited recreational spaces and fractured family structures enable gangs to exist. Add the ready availability of alcohol, drugs and firearms, and you have a highly combustible mix.
It is therefore crucial that national, provincial and local governments all execute their mandates. They should focus on ensuring higher employment rates among at-risk young people, reduced school dropout rates and the provision of basic local services including safe recreational spaces for children whose parents are at work.
The government’s new anti-gang plan is an important step: it recognises the magnitude of the organised crime crisis and the need for national intervention. But public safety is more than raids and arrests. Ending gang violence in the Western Cape and organised crime more broadly requires a balanced strategy that combines targeted law enforcement with sustained social investment, local empowerment, economic inclusion and rigorous accountability.
Without that balance, the cycle of violence will persist, and another generation of young people will be denied the future they deserve. The time for rhetoric has passed; now is the time for an honest long-term commitment, backed by resources, credible metrics and the political will to change course. DM