Illegally occupied buildings part of criminal siege

SOUTH Africa's violence has become so routine that each new killing barely disrupts the national conversation. But more often than not, an incident forces the country to look more closely at what we have normalised. The recent triple murder in Mitchells Plain, where a 9-year-old was caught in gang crossfire inside his own home, is one of those moments.

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Across the country, criminal networks have carved out spaces where the state’s presence has thinned to almost nothing. In the Western Cape, gangs occupy private homes and derelict properties. In KwaZulu-Natal, political killings continue at rates unmatched anywhere else in the country. Limpopo, Gauteng and the Eastern Cape all face their own versions of entrenched organised crime. The details differ, but the trend is the same. Crime thrives where the state has surrendered physical space.