There are two major axioms among many of the struggling communities living on the Cape Flats: get rich and/or get out. But acquiring wealth in impoverished communities often entails joining the ranks of the reigning gangs.
Street gangs have a long history in Cape Town, even prior to the large-scale forced removals of coloureds to the Cape Flats during the 1960s. But today’s gangs are no longer made up of street skollies who live hard and die rough, courtesy of bullets or drugs. Today’s gang bosses wear designer suits, run their organisations like the CEO’s of giant corporations and often distance themselves from hands-on involvement in the illicit activities on Cape Town’s mean streets. And the gangs themselves have become increasingly sophisticated. They are more akin to global organized crime syndicates than gutter operations. They are also much more difficult to break, which makes the government’s battle against gangs a much tougher war to win.
This Tuesday Special Assignment investigates the strategies of government, communities and individuals to deal with the twin scourges of gangs and drugs. We focus on Manenberg, where the most powerful gangs are most closely concentrated and the gang wars often the most violent. Although most of the residents abhor gangs and drugs, many have become unwitting accomplices - silenced by terror or loyalty towards individuals who appear to offer support and protection where the government does not. Unemployment and the absence of adequate social controls have inevitably created an environment of increased criminal activity where the icons of achievement remain professional gangsters.
Yet there are signs of change. We spend time with an ex-gangster who now devotes his life to assisting disadvantaged youth in evading the clutches of gangs and drugs. Since his release in 2003 Magadien Wentzel has focused tirelessly on trying to prevent youths at risk from repeating his mistakes, despite the fact that his personal circumstances remain dire. We join a street patrol initiated by Proudly Manenberg – a community organisation established to empower Manenberg.
But in the absence of effective policing, adequate housing and recreational facilities for Manenberg, we have to ask the question, are gangs merely a symptom and scapegoat for the deeper, more widespread malaises of poverty, unemployment and socio-economic disenfranchisement?
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