The opening session of the Parliamentary Summit on Gang-Related Violence brought together community groups, frontline activists, victims and law enforcement agencies to develop long-term, sustainable strategies to combat gang-related violence.
The Executive Director of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, Mr Mark Shaw, drew comparisons between global organised crime and gang-related violence in South Africa. In his view, organised crime thrives first and foremost on silence. A silent witness is the precious currency upon which its vices turn. To gangs, a silenced witness is a commodity bought through their illicit gains. This formula works because of the poverty and economic deprivation endured by affected communities.
This is exacerbated by a fragmented policing and justice system that does not complement itself to ensure that those involved in these crimes are successfully prosecuted, Mr Shaw explained.
The Director of the Cape Crime Crisis Coalition, Dr Llwellyn MacMaster, said the police cannot employ old policing approaches to curb crimes that are increasingly modernised and sophisticated, backed by seemingly limitless financial resources. What South Africa is facing is nothing less than a constitutional crisis, he said. “If our state can’t ensure the safety of its own citizens, that in itself is a constitutional crisis.”
He claimed that gangs thrive because they provide indigent communities with what the state fails to provide: “Gangs put bread on families’ table; they provide employment to unemployed because many are excluded from participating in the economy.”
Rev Dillian Davids, a representative of the Western Cape Council of Churches, said gang violence is a subculture that has replaced the family. Gang leaders have become an unofficial layer of governance in affected communities, while also assuming the role of father figures to destitute children who are lured into gangs by the proceeds of crime.
“Gangsterism on the Cape Flats is no longer just an organized crime. It has metastasised into a pervasive culture, a substitute to family, and an alternative governance structure born from systemic marginalisation.” Proposing a solution, Rev Davids said there is a need to “shift from mass indiscriminate raids to intelligence-led policing targeting the high-level drug lords and gun syndicates who profit off our youth.”
Crucially, he continued, “root out corrupt elements within local SAPS stations. Community trust cannot be restored when residents fear that police officers are on the payroll of local gang leaders.”
In keeping with the summit’s solution-focused approach, Ms Fransina Lukas, a mother who lost a child to gang violence and a member of the Provincial Community Policing Forum Board, stressed that gang-related violence is not solely the responsibility of the police. It is everyone’s business. Just as it takes a village to raise a child, it takes a community to prevent children from joining gangs. Communities, she said, have a critical role to play in combating gang violence because they know who the gang leaders are, where they live, how they operate and how they recruit new members.
For Ms Lukas, gang-related violence is a national crisis. Murder statistics over the years are testimony to this. Recounting the trauma and loss that families endure as a result of the scourge, she said the statistics are not merely numbers. Behind every statistic is a face, a name, a parent and a family. “Gang violence has destroyed the lives and livelihood of many families. Behind another gang murder is a loss of a child, brother, and a grieving mother, if not a family that is devastated and destroyed.”
Another grieving mother, Ms Jane Douglous, spoke about the pain of losing her two children to gang violence in 2021. She recounted the trauma and deep loss that the crime had inflicted on her and her family. Most painfully, she testified that since losing her children, she had received no communication from the police about the progress of the investigations. “To date, I am still waiting for answers. This has made me to be despondent towards the police and our criminal justice system.”
Dr Sisanda Mguzulwa, who lost a brother to gang violence, said she hoped the summit would produce meaningful outcomes. She noted that she had participated in numerous summits and conferences on the subject, where experts, researchers and academics had developed recommendations, but little had come of them. Instead, the recommendations are gathering dust on university shelves.
Ms Louisa Solomon, another mother who lost a child to the scourge, called on Parliament to prioritise safety and the fight against gang violence when allocating the national budget. She said she would not wish another mother to experience the pain and despair she had endured. Ms Solomon also hoped the summit would produce interventions capable of ending the cycle of trauma and senseless loss inflicted on mothers and families by gang violence.
“Enough is enough,” she declared.
Abel Mputing
21 August 2026
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