[imagesource: IOL File Picture]

Law enforcement continues to lose the battle against gang warfare in large parts of Cape Town.

Manenberg has seen “all-out war” for months as gangs battle for control of the streets and videos of shootings in broad daylight are sadly all too common.

In Grassy Park alone, the Community Policing Forum reports that 51 people were killed in the area due to gang violence in the financial year ending March 31, 2022.

40 murders and attempted murders were recorded since late October 2021, reports The Daily Maverick, with the flare-up due to warring gangs.

Sometimes, considering Grassy Park is an area of less than 20km², some context is needed:

Cape Town has, for many years, reported some of the highest homicide rates of any city in the world. Yet city-wide statistics do not show in detail the fact that violence is particularly acute in gang-affected suburbs such as Grassy Park.

For comparison, these few months in Grassy Park saw almost the same number of murders recorded in the entirety of Switzerland in 2020.

In 2020, Switzerland had a population of 8,637 million and the country measures 41 285 km².

The people of Grassy Park should not have to live like this, but with several gangs battling for control of the turf and the drug sales that go with it, violence is a way of life.

The situation is so bad that police have labelled the area a “red zone”. This means ambulances cannot freely travel without a police escort, with paramedics having come under attack, at times to prevent them from offering potentially life-saving treatment after a gang shootout:

Several gangs claim territory in Grassy Park. These include the widely known Americans gang, the Mongrels, a splinter group of the Mongrels known as the Dog Pounds, the Yuru Cats, the Junky Funky kids and the Six Bob gang, for which Grassy Park is the main base.

Image: Supplied by Global Initiative on Transnational Organized Crime

The Six Bob gang — reportedly under the leadership of Desmond Swartz and his older brother Alfonso “Fonny” Swartz — has, since the early 2000s, been aligned with the Young Gifted gang as the Young Gifted Six Bob.

Since around 2015, the Young Gifted Six Bob has been aggressively taking over territory across the city, killing key opponents to wrest control of turf for the street-drug trade. The group now controls territory across other areas of Cape Town, such as Hanover Park, and has a reputation for ruthless violence.

It’s feared that Swartz could have anywhere between 700 and 1 000 boys and young men at his disposal and the Six Bob gang’s aggressive tactics have led to a surge in power.

Gangs continue to actively recruit new members, who are required to shed blood in order to fulfil their initiation rituals

In response, some in the community have accused members of the Grassy Park police station of working in cahoots with gang members or turning a blind eye to their activities.

Others have shown support for Grassy Park SAPS commander Colonel Laing, who they say is waging a war against the odds.

[source:dailymaverick]