Inside the Cape Flats: Where Gangs rule and justice fails - Fanie Bouwer

Key topics

• Gang violence in Cape Flats linked to high murder rates and drug turf wars

• SAPS Anti-Gang Unit struggles with outdated tools, limited resources

• Poverty, fear, and witness silence fuel a cycle of violence and impunity

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By Fanie Bouwer 

The gang problem in the Cape Flats is once again making headlines. Just last week, during a visit to the White House, Johann Rupert identified the Cape Flats as the area with the highest murder rate in South Africa, with gang warfare being a key contributing factor. 

I would like to revisit my own experiences with gang-related issues, having served as station commissioner at several police stations across greater Cape Town. In 1994, I spent time in Manenberg, just outside Cape Town, where I worked daily alongside a large contingent of my Internal Stability Unit officers. Our aim was to confront the surge of gang violence, understand what was really going on, and experience firsthand the entrenched “culture” of gang life in that suburb and its surrounding neighbourhoods. 

Even then, the situation was dire. Cape Town’s newspapers frequently covered the violence, and I remember the Cape Argus cynically predicting that our intervention would be nothing more than a “damp squib.” 

In more recent years, the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) Anti-Gang Unit (AGU), now consisting of approximately 150-plus members, has been actively involved in fighting ongoing gang violence in the Cape Flats, with varying degrees of success. However, the AGU continues to face serious challenges, including outdated equipment and a lack of operational resources. These limitations are particularly concerning, given the estimated presence of 80,000 to 100,000 gang members operating across at least 130 gangs in the area. 

It is common knowledge that gang leaders make vast amounts of money. The underworld economy is worth millions of rands annually, and that financial lure remains ever-present. 

For many of us living in the white suburbs of Cape Town, gang violence is something we only read about or see briefly on television. But we don’t truly grasp the day-to-day reality faced by people in the Cape Flats or the hardship they endure. 

How many people, and how many children, have died in gang violence over the years? And not only in inter-gang conflicts. Some of the most brutal murders and rapes are committed by gang members. Most shootings occur when gangs clash over territorial disputes - particularly when rivals are suspected of selling drugs in each other’s domains. These violent encounters often escalate into indiscriminate gunfire, and innocent bystanders frequently get caught in the crossfire. Various other factors also contribute to these deadly outbreaks. 

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I’ve often wondered what the reaction would be if two, three, or even four children were shot and killed in one of our white suburbs. Undoubtedly, there would be outrage, massive public outcry, and wall-to-wall media coverage. Yet in the Cape Flats, such tragedies have become almost daily occurrences - for decades. It happened then, and it continues to this day. 

I sometimes describe gangs and gang violence as a culture - but is it a culture, or merely a persistent social phenomenon? Over the decades, many role-players - the state, the police, NGOs, churches, and community-based leaders have tried to intervene. Yet, long-term success has remained elusive. 

Much is expected of the police: catch the gangsters and send them to jail. But it’s not that simple. This is a deeply rooted socio-economic issue. As we know, narcotics play a central role in gang operations. Although police arrest individuals daily for possession, these arrests rarely touch the core of the problem. Unless SAPS’s organized crime units are able to dismantle the major drug networks - those who operate behind the scenes - the drug trade, and by extension gang violence, will persist. 

Police also can’t simply go around making arrests without due process. They need solid evidence. Nor can they adopt a “shoot or arrest on sight” approach, because merely being a gang member is not necessarily a criminal offence. 

Court cases often collapse because key witnesses are killed before they can testify. Residents are painfully aware of the risks, and many eyewitnesses simply choose to remain silent. This creates a cycle of impunity and deepens the sense of helplessness in already traumatised communities. 

And then there are the underlying issues that feed into this crisis: poverty, inadequate housing, and high unemployment. Unemployment and grinding poverty remains one of the most urgent and enduring challenges facing the Cape Flats. 

It is, therefor, little wonder that the late Cape poet Adam Small, himself from the Cape Flats, wrote in one of his well-known poems: 

“Die Here het gaskommel en die dice het verkeerd geval vi’ ons – daai’s maar al ….”