Over the course of this week, South African National Defence Force (SANDF) units will be deployed to gang-plagued areas on the Cape Flats.

Some say that could actually make the problem worse, but for the families living in daily fear for their lives, they will take all the help they can get.

With an estimated 900 murders on the Cape Flats in the first six months of the year, and another deadly weekend adding to that tally, we are well past crisis time.

On Sunday, Carte Blanche aired a segment called ‘Cape Town Gangs’, which went into the communities to speak with those worst affected:

Thirteen people dead in just a matter of days – that’s the startling number behind Cape Town’s escalating gang wars. From the Cape flats to Phillipi to Hanover Park – running gun battles on the streets between competing gangs have become the norm, despite the formation of the elite anti-gang unit.

The team was established to help police take control of some of the City’s neighbourhoods – but months later, the bodies of innocent victims are still piling up.

It’s when you see the suffering and fear, that the scale of the problem really hits home:

[source:carteblanche]