Blog – Gangs

As we lead into the 2019 National elections, we can expect to see an increase in political assassinations. This piece discusses some key observations from the data collected from the Assassination Witness project.

The aggregate manner in which the crime data and statistics are presented masks the disproportionate nature of violent crime in South Africa, which for decades has been concentrated in about 20 per cent of police precincts. Most of these high crime precincts are densely populated, infrastructurally marginalised and characterised by elevated levels of poverty. Therefore, in seeking to gauge a more informed analysis of crime a focus on high crime precincts provides a more enlightening touchstone for the state of violent crime in South Africa.

Gangsterism in South Africa has become a social problem. With more young people drawn to gangs, it is important to shift from a punitive approach to a more lenient approach based on understanding and addressing the needs of young people in gang ridden communities.

Young African men and women are turning to gangs and violence as a last resort, amid a rapidly urbanizing context, and a struggle between national and local governments over who is responsible for maintaining security.

Sadick Da Silva has been working with youth in communities in the Cape Flats for over thirty years. In this interview, Sadick speaks about how sports programmes can help strengthening youth and uplifting their communities, the challenges NGOs face in their work and why we need to start pointing fingers at ourselves.