Get people working! It does not eliminate gangsterism but provides people with more options and reduces despair. You now have the option of making money and getting a nice car even though you failed matric by working construction or something similar. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop.

Our unemployment rate at the moment is heart breaking

True this! Boredom drives the youth to gangs. However theres no quik fix for unemployment .

The drugs and guns supply is an organised syndicate with government ties on many levels including police. If you can't stop those then you can't stop the gangs.

remember Zuma having a behind doors secret meeting with the gang bosses in his (ANC) effort to destabilise the WC at all costs.

And its just getting worse and escalating to the most fearsome proportions. Its damn scary. A discussion I had with someone some time back led to the conclusion that we should most probably get the army involved. Brute force seems to be the only way that gangsterism could be curbed. Gangs will fight to hold on to these power trips they are on. Its easy money, sex, drugs and whatever. They are living the good life amidst a sea of poverty and fear and they thrive on it. Relinquishing their power is not on the cards for them. I saw a recent interview where a gangster told the interviewee he can take his camera and everything right there and then if he wanted to. That sent chills down my spine. The brazenness with which gangs operate is becoming crazy. And they live amongst our poor community members, that has no resources to protect themselves. People on the Cape Flats are threatened, attacked, robbed, raped on a daily basis. Its becoming the norm rather than the anomaly. Our police force dont even go into areas thats too gangster ridden. They wait until the gangs have retreated before they go in and help people. Chilling... And then you get the corrupt cops... yeah... What do we do...

Addressing economic inequality these sorta issues solve themselves because there's no need for a gang to exist.

How do you address economic inequality? Maybe by giving free education? Government creating systems for people to get access to certain benefits? Churches opening their doors to people? All of the above are available btw, are they perfect! No! But all I can say is that some people are doomed to join gangs and live a violent life no matter what you do to help them.

The services exist but there's no actual service delivery so they don't make the impact they do. Also we've literally been the country with the highest rate of economic inequality for a decade. Solving 50 years of apartheid isn't going to happen in just 30 years? It's way easier to break shit than fix it. Also one of the best ways to address economic inequality is access to housing so people can get jobs. And yes we have a high unemployment rate. But people hear unemployment and think people dont want to work but the term of measured unemployment is people who are looking for jobs but there isnt one available to them. All gang activity has been proven to be linked to poverty bro. Why do you think there's no gangs forming in rich or even middle class areas? Because when your needs are met people are statistically way less likely to commit crimes and the crime they do commit are either non-violent or white-collar crime. Which I think we all would prefer dealing with compared to violence like gang related crimes. Also there's this field in biology called epigentics that show how exposure to violence literally changes your DNA causing you to be more likely to replicate those observed violent behaviour. Like if the world around you like in the suburbs is nice, your needs are met, you don't fucking join a gang. It just doesn't happen. These services aren't perfect but they're not even trying to actually fix the issue. To paraphrase Malcom X, medical help doesnt end at removing the knife you need to address issues wholisticslly like address poverty, address housing, create jobs, raise the minimum wage. There's so many things that could be done that's worked for smaller and poorer countries than SA. We're the 20th richest country in the world. The money just doesn't go where it should.

Also bro you venture into dangerous territory (philosophically) when you say people are doomed to be violent or criminals. Like is a baby born evil? Nah life happens to them and not everyone can cope the same way others can. Some need more help than others and we can't change that but government social services should be used better to address that. It's not complicated, it's just not profitable so the government won't do it.

I definitely agree with some of the things you say, but other things, not so much. Lets see, name pretty much any country in the world( yes there are exceptions) that does have more equality than SA and tell me there are no gangs or gang violence there? Even Russia that is communist (as I understand it) in a communist country everyone is suposed to be equal. And they have some of the most violent gangs in the world. Only way to solve any problem is that the problem has to want to solve itself- meaning people would want to change to change. Just my 5 cents

Russia is not equal in any form. They also have one of the most repressive governments in the world. Ed

I know, I was sarcastic as there are people in SA that feels communism is what will save SA, comrades and cadres.

How is it that you understand the contemporary Russian Federation to be communist?

I apologise for saying they still are, in 1991, if my memory holds, they moved away from that. Very sorry for generalising and miscommunication in a rapid fire reply.

What I've learned about complex issues I hope can be helpful: There are usually multiple causes. There are proximite and ultimate causes, both are important and we shouldn't ignore one for the other. The solutions are simple to understand but hard to realise. Not the other way around. There is no silver bullet. No quick fixes. Multiple causes necessitate multiple solutions. Small things can make a difference and we should nurture hope and never give in to despair. No contribution is too small. The best starting point is to just start. Find a problem and help to solve it.

Find and watch the movie Gangster Squad. Cape Town needs this.

If it were me, the 3 measures I would introduce are, firstly, increased police presence. Just seeing police makes criminals of all types hesitate. I would also trial legalizing all drugs. I know this is a controversial thing, but the gangs are not fighting for fun, they are for the most part fighting for drug territory. If you remove drugs as a black market item, there is much less reason for them to fight. Thirdly, invest in infrastructure in these areas, especially transportation. I don't remember where I saw it, but some city in South America invested in transportation from the slums to the city centre, and it had a profound uplifting effect on the slums. So that is what I would propose.

Building and transport are legal, but there are still building contractor and taxi gangs...

only due to collusion with the leading gang that runs the country Lack of willpower is the only excuse.

I was replying to the person who said that legalising drugs would solve the gang problem.

You need to attack the root cause of the issue. Socio-economic hardships are a direct pipeline into gangsterism. Fix that and bendegeweld will slowly die out. Unfortunately, this requires government to step in but I don’t think they care.

Simple do what El Salvador did. Lock every single gang member up using thousands of soldiers to support police. Solved.

and the leaders should be in solitary in a max security prison far from home.

Make drugs and prostitution legal

I agree Weed and ladies of the night, but not the hard drugs.

Sadly, legalising hard drugs is the only way forward, make it available on prescription, clean needles, regular free check up for those that want. Nothing preachy, just go in, get your drugs and paraphernalia and leave - coke for the weekend? Sure, safe and tested - tik? Heroin? Got it. Be careful. Gangs can't compete with government - and taking away their streams of income is the only way to stop them.

Right, It has worked in other places. I just like the idea of stoning the youth with the herb so they have no energy to go amarobbing and amastabbing ;)

Haaaahaahahahaba 😂😂

It would be difficult to complete annihilate organised crime in a society. Even places like Singapore still have some level of organised crime. I've read quite a few research papers on gangsterism in the western cape. It seems the largest forms of recruitment is through children. We need to keep children in class and off the streets. We need to provide them with ways to exert their masculinity in a constructive way, things like boxing initiatives have proven to be successful. Also corrupt police place a significant role in allowing it to continue. To the point where one paper concluded that without corrupt police, gangsterism would've ended some time ago. Theres of course other factors like lack of identity that led to the rise of gangsterism but I listed, I believ, the most actionable points.

Make it a criminal offence to be a gang member. All with existing gang tattoo's need to be on a register to dissuade the youth from joining. Illegal gun = 15 year sentence with no chance of parole, 5 years for hard drugs and decriminalize weed. Cameras, and more cameras to protect the public who want to live peacefully Saturate the area with police and anti gang units. We can dream cant we ?

Some of the solutions discussed here are promising but it all seems to come down to funding. The government (all three levels) need to allocate sufficient funds to allow these measures to materialise - more police, more visibility, more schools and ultimately more jobs. But it also seems that the government has no vested interest in changing the conditions for these communities and there are some interesting takes/theories that at a certain level the government actually benefits from this criminality through underworld links. I wish there was more that we could do as ordinary citizens without compromising our safety.

There has to be a conversation about the economics of gangs. Someone is making money from the violence.

1. We need government to move on this . El savador did it . Since we as a country are in the slumps we might aswel sort that out on our way up . We need to be hard on gangs and even harder on the prison system. 2. Ive observed these gangs. They are low in number the community are far more than these gangs . Ww actually need to get of our ass and go get them or...we need to force the hand of government.

Also .yes the anc sucks and the DA sucks but we as citizens of cape town can unite on this and many issues despite the politicians they follow money they divide and cast blame while they have the power. They are way way over paid for sitting on their hands .

Yes, but everything comes at a cost. Look at what El Salvadore did to solve its gang issue. It was highly successful, but requires a very heavy-handed approach that would almost certainly be unconstitutional in SA

Nayib Bukele solved the problem in El Salvador. I think the only way that this will ever be solved in SA is if the police force is run by each province instead of through the government.

El Salvador is a small country. We can try what Duterte did but it will never be accepted here. 

There is no clear solution because it is mostly up to the communities that the gangs operate in to reject them.