Retired police officer and former head of the provincial anti-gang unit, Jeremy Vearey. Image: Shelley Christians/UWCGang violence and organised crime continue to grip communities across the Western Cape, leaving children and families exposed to cycles of exploitation and neglect.
At a one-day seminar hosted by the University of the Western Cape (UWC), activists, academics, faith leaders and community organisers came together to call for urgent, coordinated action against what they described as a deeply entrenched social crisis.
For Henriette Abrahams, a community organiser and feminist activist based in Bonteheuwel, the crisis is starkly visible in the lives of children. “Children on the Cape Flats are being exploited by poverty and systemic neglect. Families struggle to survive, schools and social services are under-resourced, and gangs fill the void, offering money, drugs and a sense of belonging. Many children are coerced through hunger or homelessness into doing things no child should ever face. This is not a matter of choice. If we do nothing, we are complicit in the destruction of a generation,” she said.
Her words echo the findings of the seminar, which traced the long history of gangsterism in South Africa, from prison gangs dating back more than a century to today’s sophisticated criminal syndicates. Participants emphasised that gangsterism is not only criminal but also cultural, governed by codes and hierarchies that adapt to changing socio-economic conditions. The legacy of apartheid spatial planning, forced removals and economic marginalisation continues to shape environments where gangs thrive.
Children are among the most vulnerable. Abrahams highlighted how poverty, unemployment and intergenerational trauma intersect with absent fathers and strained households, leaving young people searching for identity and belonging. Gangs step into this vacuum, offering immediate rewards that mask exploitation. Some children are manipulated by family members for food or money, girls coerced into sexual favours, and others even view prison as a place of safety. Schools, often under-resourced, struggle to identify trauma-related learning barriers, and dropout rates remain high. Once disengaged, children are easily absorbed into violent systems.
The seminar – which featured prominent figures like retired police officer and former head of the provincial anti-gang unit, Jeremy Vearey, and criminologist Irvin Kinnes – underscored similar concerns, noting that in high-risk districts as many as one in four learners who reach Grade 9 do not complete Grade 12. Girls face additional vulnerabilities, with teenage pregnancy and sexual exploitation shaping pathways into gang environments. In 2024/25 alone, more than 10,000 births in the Western Cape were recorded among mothers aged 11 to 19, many of whom did not return to school.
Both Abrahams and seminar participants stressed that prevention and care are far more effective than punitive approaches. Trauma-informed school programmes, youth mentorship, after-school feeding schemes, community-led safe spaces and psychosocial support were cited as interventions that work. Grassroots initiatives such as “walking buses” and the BambaNani project have already created safer corridors for learners, reducing gang recruitment and exposure to violence.
Yet, systemic failures persist. Policing strategies remain reactive, intelligence systems are weakened, and trust between communities and law enforcement is compromised. Participants warned against militarisation, noting that while army deployments may provide short-term stabilisation, they elevate the risk of long-term instability. Instead, the call was for co-designed interventions where communities, government and law enforcement collaborate as equal partners.
Abrahams insists that violence has become normalised, shaping children’s sense of what is acceptable. “Children are not choosing this life freely. They are being shaped by it, pushed into it, and failed into it. If society continues to look away, we are not just losing children - we are complicit in a system that is consuming them.”
The seminar concluded with a clear message: addressing gangsterism in the Western Cape requires more than law enforcement. It demands a comprehensive, society-wide response rooted in collaboration, prevention and community empowerment. “The solutions already exist within communities; what is needed now is the political will, resources and trust to bring them to scale,” said Abrahams.
