Gangs in South Africa

The history of gangs in South Africa go back to the apartheid regime.

Many South African gangs began, and still exist, in urban areas. Main areas include cities like Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg.

History

Gangs rose to prominence in South Africa when it was migrated by rural residence under the Group Areas Act, this caused increase in poverty and racial segregation.[1][2] In the 1960s and 1970s, people in Cape Town that where so-called "coloured" in older neighborhoods where forced and resettled in Cape Flats which caused danger, gangs then started emerging from Cape Flats and other areas due to the breakdown of social control of the inner city, which caused crippling unemployment and social marginalization with former multi-racial suburbs of Cape Town which were either purged of unlawful residents or demolished, such as District Six with over 60,000 residents.[2][3][4] In Johannesburg in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, many African communities were relocated and resettled, in Soweto in the Meadowlands and Diepkloof, where Western Soweto complained of severe crime and juvenile delinquency during the 1960s.[5]

By the early 1960s South Africans turned to more violent activities, which was counteracted by police action.[2]

In 2013, 12% of the 2,580 murders in Western Cape where gang-related, in which was an 86% increase from 2012. Children as that where as young as 14 were being arrested on gang-related murder charges.[6]

In 2019, 900 people have been murdered in the first half of the year in communities in Cape Flats in the Western Cape.[7]

Typology

The Safety Lab has identified four distinct categories that Cape Town based gangs can be divided into: street gangs, crews, cliques, and prison gangs.[8]

Street gangs

The largest and best known gang type in Cape Town are the street gangs that are mostly associated with poorer coloured communities.[8] They tend to have hierarchical command structures and are thought to derive most of their income from the illicit drug trade.[8] In Cape Town the two largest gangs are The Americans and the Hard Livings which function as umbrella organisations for many smaller gangs that are allied with the two super gangs. Smaller gangs in Cape Town that might be allied to one of the two larger umbrella gangs include Young Dixie Boys, Clever Kids, Naughty Boys, the Junky Funky Kids, Respectable Peacefuls, Wonder Kids, School Boys and Yuru Cats.[9] Street gang culture is also found in smaller towns elsewhere in the province, like Worcester where gang activity is present in the coloured people's housing projects. The largest and most dominant gang is the Junior Cisco Yakkies.

In Port Elizabeth (and the greater metro) street gangs are mostly active in the 'Northern areas' region where most communities are predominantly coloured.[10] The two largest gangs here are known as The Dustlifes and Upstand Doggs - which happen to be arch rivals for many decades. Many smaller gangs are splinter groups of these gangs. Others include; Shottas, Paparazzis, Boomshakas, Untouchables, Fat Cats, Kakmaakers, and Sestien Honde (which means Sixteen Dogs).

The most active street gangs in Johannesburg are also found in predominant coloured communities; like Westbury, Newclare, Eldorado Park and Reiger Park (located in Boksburg in the East Rand). Gangs like the Majimbos has been most prominent in Eldorado Park, and were thought by many to be defunct, until they made their resurgence in the underworld in recent years. Other prominent gangs in the city include; the Fast Guns, Varrados, Terribles, Dogons and Sour Boys.

Prison gangs
Main article: The Numbers Gang

Prison gangs in South Africa consist mostly of the Numbers Gangs, a grouping of prison based gangs named after the different numbers they are named after; namely the 26s, 27s, and 28s.[8] These gangs tend to be highly structured with strong hierarchical command structures and high levels of organisation.[8]

See also

References
  1. Kaplan, Irving. Area Handbook for the Republic of South Africa (PDF). pp. 1–86. Retrieved 25 March 2016.
  2. Rogers, Dennis; Hazan, Jennifer (August 2014). Global Gangs: Street Violence across the World. ISBN 978-1452941813.
  3. Glaser, Clive (2000). Bo-tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto. p. 9. ISBN 0852556403.
  4. "Recalling District Six". SouthAfrica.info. 19 August 2003.
  5. Glaser, Clive (2000). Bo-tsotsi: The Youth Gangs of Soweto. p. 10. ISBN 0852556403.
  6. "Fighting the gangs of South Africa's Western Cape". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  7. Friedman, Barbara (15 July 2019). "We find connections between gangs in Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban". CapeTalk 567AM. Retrieved 12 August 2019.
  8. Roloff, Nathanial (May 2014). "Gang Typologies of the Western Cape" (PDF). safetylab.org. The Safety Lab. Retrieved 10 September 2019. External link in |publisher= (help)
  9. Salo, Elaine. "Mans is Ma Soe: Ganging practices in Manenberg, South Africa and the ideologies of masculinity, gender and generational relations" (PDF). Retrieved 10 September 2019.
  10. MacMaster, L.L., 2010. In search of a family: The challenge of gangsterism to faith communities on the Cape Flats (Doctoral dissertation, Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch).
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