Fragmentation fuels WC gang violence

GANG-related violence in the Western Cape has sustained a worrying upward trend over the past five years, with a significant acceleration in the frequency with which splinter groups form, gangs fragment, and new groups emerge to challenge long-established predecessors.

- MANYANE MANYANE [e-mail]

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 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 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.