Not simply criminal issue

A shocking series of necklacings and stabbings of alleged gang members apparently by a Gauteng community last week has, once again, brought into sharp focus the growing problem of  gangsterism.

Members of the Etwatwa community, east of Johannesburg, are believed to have acted in retaliation against a reign of terror by the OverLoaded (OVL) gang which is alleged to have committed nearly 30 cases of assault and to have been forcing youngsters into gangs responsible for criminal activities including drug peddling.

The Etwatwa case is one of several examples in recent years illustrating that  gangsterism is no longer a problem confined to communities of the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape, particularly Port Elizabeth and in areas such as Duncan Village, East London.

In Gauteng the safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane this week said the authorities were aware of  a number of gangs operating in the province and that she was visiting several townships to address this.

Prevailing international criminological literature is mostly in agreement that gangs are a product of the communities in which they exist, and hence they cannot be understood as separate from those communities.  Gang formations do not exist in isolation, nor do they exist in a vacuum.  They are as much affected by the historical and contemporary dynamics of their communities as the communities themselves.

However, the communities of the Cape Flats and those of Port Elizabeth’s northern areas have suffered acutely with gangsterism as an endemic problem for decades.

The typical response has mainly been a call for a zero-tolerance approach to dealing with gangs.

In fact, some have even called for a paramilitary-style intervention.

In 2013, it was reported that Western Cape Premier Helen Zille advocated that the army be deployed as a “peacekeeping force” to deal with spikes in gang violence in the Western Cape.

Similarly, in 2014 The Herald published a letter from a concerned resident of Port Elizabeth’s northern areas calling for a joint counterinsurgency and paramilitary approach to curb gangsterism.

Last week  (September 15) The Herald reported more extensively on serious gang problems  in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth and attempts to combat these.

The report outlined the results of  the activities of a specialist anti-gang task team created by the SAPS to curb high levels of gang crimes in the northern areas.

According to the report provincial police bosses stated that “102 suspected gangsters” were arrested “for a range of crimes”.  In addition, “64 stolen firearms” had been confiscated since May 2015.

In a letter to the editor in the same edition of The Herald, L Berry, a resident of Helenvale (popularly called Katanga, and acknowledged as one of the areas with the worst gangsterism problem) implored NMBM mayor Danny Jordaan to “save the Bay”.

Specifically, Berry begged Jordaan to “protect the honest citizens” of this area.  There was a dire need for this protection because, he said, “Katanga is a war zone, controlled by uneducated drugged-up gangster-boys who seems (sic) to mushroom overnight.  They are protected by allegedly corrupt police officers and the older druglords”.

Berry highlighted the  key problems of the area as being “gangsterism, corruption, poverty, drugs, unemployment and crime”.

It cannot be disputed that gangs cause widespread fear, terror and loss of life, and that they are responsible for most crimes in communities that are affected by them.

But, it should be understood that gangs are not solely a criminal or law enforcement problem.

For this reason, zero-tolerance or paramilitary approaches are not a lasting solution. In fact, these approaches may serve to exacerbate the underlying causes that lead youths to join gangs in the first place.

Also, such strategies fail to address the holistic factors impacting the communities that spawn gang formations. The longevity of gangs on the Cape Flats and those in the northern areas in Port Elizabeth illustrates that these formations are highly adaptable, sophisticated and dynamic entities.

Some gangs are no longer simply groups of delinquent youths hanging around street corners engaging in petty delinquency. Some, particularly those that have existed for some time, have developed structures and hierarchies, even informal (underground) economies that allow them to continue despite the attentions of law enforcement.

For as long as gangs are treated as only criminal or law enforcement issues they will not only remain a problem but will worsen.

For one thing, merely dealing with gangs as a crime problem ignores the complex and multidimensional factors and causes that give rise to them in the first place, and creates the impression that simply arresting and incarcerating gangsters is the solution.

The SAPS task team in Port Elizabeth may have arrested 102 suspected gangsters, but how many of them will be successfully prosecuted and sentenced?

Many of the gangsters who are arrested do not even see the inside of a prison because  they avoid conviction either through the intimidation or the execution of key witnesses, or through possible police corruption.

Most of those who are successfully prosecuted and sentenced are not rehabilitated in prison since gang culture exists in the prison environment as well.

Furthermore, for those who eventually do get out of prison, what do they return to in their communities? Once released many are again trapped up in the very same conditions that drove them to gangsterism in the first place.

Gangs have become so entrenched in affected communities that they have become integrated into the social structures of those communities. One can even go as far as to say that gangs have become social institutions that have taken over the primary functions of other “legitimate” social institutions which have broken down.

Gangs continue to thrive because they provide what legitimate institutions of provision have failed to do. The failure of state institutions to deliver services, the ongoing problems in education, the slow pace of constructive urban renewal and development, ongoing unemployment and poor socio-economic conditions are all macro-level structural factors that contribute to the formation and longevity of gangs.

Nkosi-Malobane this week also announced an intervention strategy in which OVL members would be sent to an educational “camp” to highlight the dangers of gang life. This is an encouraging sign, but it is just one step in the right direction.

If the Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City metros would invest as much in the development and support of programmes and intervention strategies that target the children and youths most at risk to gang assimilation, as they do in criminal punishment of these youths perhaps things could turn around.

If the authorities all began to treat gangsterism as part of the wider socio-economic problems in these communities instead of separate from them, it may be a step in the right direction.

If the media would spend as much time focusing on community initiatives and strategies to improve the lives of residents and to assist the families and youth that are at risk, as they do on reporting on how many deaths have occurred or how many gangsters were arrested or prosecuted, it may go a long way to help in changing people’s perceptions of these violence-torn communities.

A holistic effort is the only viable and sustainable way to regain control of these communities.

Professor Theodore Petrus is an anthropologist and researcher in the University of Fort Hare’s faculty of social sciences and humanities. His current research focuses on gangs in the northern areas of Port Elizabeth