They tend to have hierarchical command structures and are thought to derive most of their income from the illicit drug trade. The largest and best known gang type in Cape Town are the street gangs that are mostly associated with poorer Coloured communities. The Safety Lab has identified four distinct categories that Cape Town based gangs can be divided into: Street gangs, Crews, Cliques, and Prison gangs. Typology Ī large gang tag claiming control of the surrounding area for the Ugly Americans gang, a sub gang of the Americans gang, in Cape Town. īy the early 1960s, gang violence had escalated, which was counteracted by more policing and patrolling of non-white areas. Western Soweto complained of severe crime and juvenile delinquency during the 1960s. Also in Gauteng is one of the most ruthless and globally connected mafias in South Africa known as 'The Sysue Mafia' or popularly known as 'The Angels' they are known to attack those who attack innocent civilians they are known to be the adjudicators of the underworld. Lenasia and Laudium became the hub of South Africa's most notorious yet secretive mafia family globally known as RFMO (Rasool Family Mafia Organisation) originally from Pietersburg (now Polokwane) sanctuary of the infamous SAMA (South African Mafia Association) founded by Goolam Rasool (aka Jabulani In Johannesburg in the mid-1950s and early 1960s, many Black African communities were relocated and resettled, in Soweto in the Meadowlands and Diepkloof.

Many people who occupied those hostels were Zulu people who fought under Inkatha Freedom Party during the 90s. Hostels around Gauteng are connected to those in KwaZulu-Natal due to their heavy Zulu presence, as people in KwaZulu-Natal occupied those hostels during political wars in the 90s. The oldest sections/hostels date back to the early 1900s such as Dalton Hostel built in 1934. Hostels are more politically influenced and were involved in wars for political power during the 80s-2000s. Sections and Hostels were built by the Apartheid government as part of the Group Areas Act, most people from these sections and hostels came from different parts of the ZULU clans across KwaZulu-Natal. In the province of KwaZulu-Natal gangs has put themselves in a situation where their regarded more as just neighborhoods rather than gangs.

It is home to the number gangs, hostel organizations and section organizations. In 2019, 900 people have been murdered in the first half of the year in communities in the Cape Flats in the Western Cape by 2022 it was reported that the Black Axes gang had started operating in Cape Town. Children as young as the age of 14 were arrested on gang-related murder charges. In 2013, 12% of the 2,580 murders in the Western Cape were gang-related, which was an 86% increase from 2012. The Globe is often cited as the first gang in Cape Town but started as a neighborhood watch in District Six. Former multi-racial suburbs of Cape Town, such as District Six, were either purged of unlawful residents or demolished. This is due to the breakdown of social control of the inner city, which caused severe unemployment, poverty and social marginalization. In the 1960s and 1970s, Coloured residents of Cape Town started forming gangs in the Cape Flats and other non-white areas. This caused an increase in poverty and unemployment in Black and Coloured communities, most notably amongst those in the Cape Province (modern day Western Cape, Northern Cape and Eastern Cape) where Coloureds were and are still the largest racial group. Gangs rose to prominence in South Africa as a result of the Group Areas Act, which evicted “non-white” South Africans from their homes and resettled them in rural and underdeveloped areas far from urban and economic centres. Cape Town has between 90 and 130 gangs with the South African Police Service stating a total estimated membership of 100,000. This includes cities like Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and Johannesburg. Many South African gangs began, and still exist, in urban areas. The history of gangs in South Africa goes back to the Apartheid era.

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