A gang war is currently underway in Nyanga between two gangs, the Vato and the Vura. These gang members are aged between 14 and 25. Journalist for the Daily Maverick Pharie Sephali interviewed some of these gang members.

Sephali interviewed Koko who is an 18-year-old who belongs to the Vura gang. Koko “bragged” to Sephali that his gang had murdered 11 members that belonged to the Vato gang. He said:

In our group only three members got killed by the enemy. We’re very strong and we stand by each other no matter what.

As spokesperson for the Vura gang, Koko explained that if you live by the sword, you die by the sword. Once you are a part of Vura, you are a member for life. But the gang wars currently in play suggest a short lived life – one of the members of the Vura gang had been hit with pangas and stoned to death.

This is not he only shocking news. A gang member by the name of Anele is in intensive care after being beaten. Anele’s mother, Mrs Vuwani is praying her son does not recover.

She explained that she would rather have him dead than alive because the life he has chosen brings unhappiness to her family.

Once you are part of the gang, you have to leave your family behind. The gang members move out of their homes and only return when they need food or clothes. They are housed in a secret location where they take care of each other. One gang member said:

If you stay in your home you put your siblings at risk and your enemies can come for you any time of the night. Therefore you have to be alert at all times.

Another part of the life of a gang member is drugs. These members use tik for “physical and mental power”. They mug people or steal from homes in order to score money for the drug which according to them is not expensive. According to Sephali the members were “proud” to be smoking the drug, they even showed the journalist how to smoke it.

Every Friday “unmanned medicine” is purchased by the members which they all have to drink at one time.

We can go out and do whatever we want to whoever. That is were we get most of our strength. It makes us feel like the untouchables.

An ex-gang member explained the medicine is bought from a sangoma and the members believe that when they drink the liquid “they are protected and invincible” from any weapon.

One gang member explained to Sephali that he had no “hopes and dreams”. Koko said:

When I was younger I wanted to be a soccer player but then life happened. I realised dreams are just dreams not a reality.

Some gang members choose not to attend school. Abongile, a 20-year-old, explained “he felt safer at home than at school”. A grade 11 at Oscar Mpetha High School learner said:

I hate going to school. I am not part of any gang but I am a victim. These gangsters rob us every day at school and on our way to school. They think that they rule the world.

An educator at Oscar Mpetha said:

The metro police and the Department of Safety and Security partnered with schools that have a high crime rate. They started a project where police patrol around the schools to decrease crime. That is why there are always police around the school.

Sephali put the murder rate of Nyanga into perspective:

The murder rate in Nyanga is well in excess of 200 per 100,000, probably far higher.

The homicide rate for South Africa as a whole is 32 per 100,000 and the world homicide rate in 2010 was estimated to be seven per 100,000. El Salvador is considered one of the most dangerous countries on the planet and has a homicide rate of less than 70 per 100,000.

[Source: Daily Maverick]