The alarming rise of gang violence in the Western Cape

GANG-RELATED violence in the Western Cape has reached intolerable levels in 2025, which has sustained a worrying upward trend of the past five years.

- MANYANE MANYANE

THE Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime's (GI-TOC) Western Cape Gang Monitor revealed gang-related violence in the province has become extremely bad.

This is according to the report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime's (GI-TOC) Western Cape Gang Monitor, which stated that gang-related murders in the first six months of 2025 were 58 higher than in the same period in 2024.

GI-TOC said this is significant as gang-related murders had already doubled between 2020 and 2024.

Hotspot areas include parts of Hanover Park, Manenberg, Mitchells Plain, Delft and Elsies River. They largely coincide with areas where police stations are particularly vulnerable to corruption, reducing local resilience to gang activity, the report stated.

The report summarises the factors that have driven gang dynamics in 2025 and outlines a plan to address the challenge in the short term, leading into 2026.

The Western Cape is frequently cited as the epicenter of South Africa's gang crisis. Despite having less than 12% of the national population, it has been reported that the province accounts for nearly 90% of all gang-related murders in South Africa.

Turf wars, in which new groups take over territory from older rivals in some areas, have long been a characteristic of Western Cape gangs. This destroys families, with innocent children, mothers, and elders caught in the crossfire.