The true story of Pagad G-Force’s covert war against gangsterism in Cape Town

A CAMPAIGN against gangsterism in Cape Town, South Africa, led by the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad), turned violent in the mid-1990s when a group known as Pagad G-Force began what became known as an urban terrorism campaign.

- David Africa

Lives on the Line, written by security analyst David Africa, is the true story of the secret team in the country's crime intelligence division that waged a six-year battle against the terror group and won. The terror campaign was brought to a standstill in 2002. Criminology professor Irvin Kinnes sets out why it's a riveting read, a bold tell-all account by a brave author.

In 1995, one year after the country's first democratic elections, a new law was passed creating the newly constituted South African Police Service. It was a tough year because the elements of the old order in the police service had great difficulty accepting the new democratic dispensation. They had to collaborate with the people that they had tortured, jailed, and, in some cases, maimed as a result of their role in political oppression in support of apartheid.

A system of dual power emerged in the police, where some of the commanders that were appointed were former members of the liberation movements. They were seen as “plastic cops” because they did not train in the police academies around the country, but in the bush. Some subsequently attended various training academies.

They were all integrated with other homeland police agencies from the Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, and Ciskei states and other “independent” homelands that had existed under apartheid. In total, 11 agencies combined to form the newly created and democratic police service in 1995.