The future, gangs and society

The discussion of gangs and the future involves many important factors. Effective solutions will only be reached if there is sufficient commitment by the government to address the socio-economic factors that give rise to the growth in gangsterism.

The only response from the government should also not be a ‘law and order’ approach. Given the violent nature of crimes committed by gangsters, there has to be an appropriate, proportional response. It is incumbent upon all actors in the criminal justice system to play their roles with imaginative commitment. Recommendations of interventions that will prevent more youth from joining gangs are urgently needed.

The government needs to be informed about the similarities and differences between gang activities in the provinces.Gangsterism in other provinces does not necessarily conform to the typology of gangsterism found in the Western Cape. Here whole families are often involved in a culture of illicit activities — from pilfering from their employers to supporting criminals by buying illegal goods. The tragedy is that the moral compass of the community has been diverted and redirected to the criminal morality. This criminal morality has permeated all layers of society from the clergy, to the police to local government structures and even public officials.

Residents of communities such as Manenberg are victimised because of where they live. The reality is that not all the people who live there are gangsters. Given a situation where people are easily labelled, they sometimes react to such labelling by committing criminal acts. Fundamental issues should be addressed by the government if it wants to ensure successful crime prevention.

The emphasis of the government is on being tough on crime with models of zero tolerance being mooted. The weakness of such an attitude is that it focuses on target-hardening while impinging on human rights. Such strategies may result in criminal behaviour coming by groups of people and soon the potential offender will be stereotyped as ‘young, black and male’. Such strategies can lead to the victimisation and harassment of certain racial groups in the long term.

Gangs have continued to grow in the face of police’s inability to come to terms with the political changes that took place in the country. As matters stand now, it is debatable whether gangs will have the ability to disrupt government in the short term. It is clear from past experience that they do have the power to disrupt activities at local level, especially where the delivery of services is concerned.

For as long as the Western Cape has racial divisions and huge income disparities, real and imaginary, the gang problem will persist. Figures from the South African Institute for Race Relations show the profile for South Africa where:

The perception of political exclusion among the coloured community plays a major role in motivational and causal factors that keep people involved in gang activity. The need for protection and defence felt by the majority of residents on the Cape Flats due to the poor policing should also not be underestimated. This will remain a motivating factor for some people to remain in gangs. It does not explain, however, why some people in the same areas, with the same levels of violence, choose not to commit crimes and choose to remain outside the gang culture. In the final analysis, any programme that proposes to deal with crime has to take into consideration that there are many families that depend on gangs for employment and a livelihood.

Until real alternatives are sought for the rank and file, they will continue to believe that there are shortcuts to success, epitomised by the Porsche-driving gangster with the latest Ray Ban glasses and Gucci clothing. The problem is that the same image of success is presented to youth by industry and the government. Young people go out in the world with the view to achieve success. When they find barriers to entry or restricted access to the legitimate opportunity structure, the illegitimate opportunity structure beckons, with far greater rewards and pitfalls.

The youth may make a rational choice to go in the direction of criminality as a result of their frustration with the status quo. Their skill is violence and it has an economic value to the gangs. With the legal opportunity structure steadily closing for white South Africans, it may be possible that more white youths will be propelled into a world of crime in time to come.

In this regard, there are already reports that gangs are recruiting white schoolchildren in shopping malls. Believing that they generally have more money available than coloured and back children, there has been a flood of drugs into white schools and at rave parties. Drug dealers have already started to cultivate their new consumers, young white achievers and schoolchildren who are more easily trapped into the world of drug abuse.

Globalisation has brought a new reality to South Africa. It has introduced the crises associated with world production and consumption. More importantly, with the distribution of wealth in the world almost exclusively aimed at rich countries, drug dealing accounts for an alternative world economy. It has a turnover of billions of dollars and employs millions of people around the world.

The reality is that drug cartels understand that, as long as there is an unequal distribution of wealth throughout the world, there will always be a market for drugs such as cocaine, heroine and crack. Until this divide is bridged, the dependence on ‘white gold’ and other illegal substances will remain.

The move by international drug dealers to dispose of their goods on the South African market is significant as it shows that the South African market has been developed successfully and there are rich rewards to be gained.

It is up to the government to consider how it must deal with the gang problem on the Cape Flats without alienating and marginalising the communities. While the opportunity stares the country in the face, the government will have to prepare long and short-term plans that will assist in redirecting people away from gangs and drugs. If it is left too late, the country may soon face a reaction that will be difficult to recover from.

One thing that counts in South Africa’s favour is that it has a strong and vibrant civil society sector that is prepared to assist the government when dealing with such an issue. Time and money have to be invested to research the problem thoroughly and to come up with effective solutions.

South Africa is remarkably equipped to deal with many of the problems resulting form gang activities. It possesses the best intelligence-gathering capabilities in sub-Saharan Africa and has the expertise to deal with local drug dealers. It has to sharpen its responses when dealing with foreign syndicates. But the foreign syndicates do not pose the biggest threat to democracy. The threat comes from within in the form of massive and complex gangs that have developed into more powerful structures that are capable of crippling the government’s service delivery timetable.

Unfortunately, legislation alone will not be able to deal with the problems of gangs. What is needed, is an holistic approach, socio-economic development and a crime prevention programme that incorporates rehabilitation for those who wish to turn away from gang activities. History has shown that the battle against gangs is also the battle of ideas and resources. If the hearts and minds of Western Cape communities cannot be diverted from a selective criminal morality to a more inclusive and caring one, the gangs will succeed in winning the marginalised sections far easier than may be imagined.