Cape Town gangs step in where the state fails

Power struggles between gangs who run protection rackets and illegal transnational trade in abalone and drugs are a hallmark of the Western Cape’s criminal underworld.

The fourth edition of the Western Cape Gang Monitor, released by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime, paints a sobering picture of the complexity of organised crime in the province.

It reflects a usurping of the government’s authority, with gangs controlling turf and leaders getting away with murder as state witnesses are killed or threatened into silence. 

Fuelling the violence are arms and ammunition that flows from smuggling, legal gun owners and dubious security firms to the gangs.

Unravelling these gangs and the fear they instil in business owners and residents, who pay protection money to them, is not easy because it requires rooting out systemic problems such as corruption in the South African Police Service and achieving better gun control, security analysts say.

The report highlights the gunning down on 3  November of Mark Lifman, a prominent figure in Cape Town’s underworld, and includes interviews with current and former gang members, civil society figures and members of the criminal justice system.

Lifman was a dominant force in Cape Town’s extortion economy, particularly in the nightclub security sector. He ascended to prominence in the 2010s through his involvement in the nightclub scene, which he controlled with Jerome “Donkie” Booysen of the Sexy Boys and Nafiz Modack.

Gang rivalries turned violent in 2017, sparking competition for dominance in the lucrative protection rackets before the rivals settled into co-existence.

But Lifman’s death has raised fears of renewed violence in the decades-long turf war, notes the report, which depicts gang control as a spiderweb of decentralised authorities rather than a top-down hierarchy. 

The leader may be dead, but Lifman’s network and other gangsters expect his protection business to continue.

“It’s business as usual. Why would it change? Because they killed one of the bosses? No way! We got the necessary firepower to get the job done,” said a member of the Sexy Boys interviewed for the report.

Business owners have also predicted they must keep paying. One said he had factored in extortion as “an inevitable operating expense, a payment of around R1  500 to R2  000 per establishment per month”.

“Stopping payments is unthinkable. The safety of our staff and patrons is at stake,” he said.

What allows rackets to flourish is ineffective and corrupt policing.

“Police inefficiency means business owners see protection rackets as the lesser of two evils,” another respondent noted.

A parallel economy 

A significant finding of the report is how organised extortion syndicates have extended their influence into the provision of basic services in poor neighbourhoods.

Yanga “Bara” Nyalara, an extortionist in Khayelitsha, is a case in point. His operation, as described in police affidavits, is a self-reinforcing cycle of violence and control. Nyalara operated a quasi-police station out of a container at Site C taxi rank in Khayelitsha.

“The choice of location was strategic — as a taxi owner and association member, Nyalara could leverage existing transport industry networks while maintaining a visible presence in community life. From this base, he allegedly encouraged community members to report crimes such as robberies and assaults directly to him, offering a resolution for a fee through his criminal network,” the report noted.

“He let his own runners rob people and break into houses, then played the Robin Hood figure to gain popularity by dealing with these so-called offenders.”

Nyalara symbolises a trend in the province where extortion gangs such as the Bara, the George and the Piri are de facto authorities in townships such as Khayelitsha.

They proffer a semblance of order through violence and coercion, exploiting the vacuum the state has left in its failure to deliver security and basic services.

Thando Pimpi, councillor for Ward  93 in Khayelitsha, noted that extortionists charge contractors fees of R50  000 to work in his ward, crippling government service delivery.

 “We can’t do anything,” he said.

Protection fees from schools have also been demanded.

“Extortionists have been seen parked outside schools as a form of intimidation or as a sign to other extortionists that the school falls within their turf. The schools in question are hesitant to report these incidents or speak out due to the threat of violence, and there has been little to no public coverage of this developing problem,” the report noted.

“The scope of these groups’ operations reveals their ambition to become de facto governing authorities … these gangs now demand ‘protection fees’ from almost every commercial enterprise … This extensive system of taxation mirrors legitimate governance structures, creating a parallel economy that has penetrated government service delivery.”

Violent arsenal

The report notes the ease of acquiring arms and ammunition.

Data from the City of Cape Town’s ShotSpotter system showed that more than 7 400 rounds were fired in four Cape Flats suburbs in the first eight months of 2024.

A senior police investigator observed: “Five years ago, we’d pick up five or six bullet casings at a crime scene. Now, it’s 30 to 60, and they’re brand new.”

Gangs acquire ammunition through multiple channels, including cross-border smuggling, corrupt police and robberies, while legal loopholes in the firearms licensing system aids supply.

Licensed gun owners, including hunters and private security firms, can exploit lax oversight mechanisms, allowing them to stockpile ammunition and sell it. For example, the Firearms Control Act allows gun owners to buy 200 rounds of ammunition per firearm but because there is no centralised database this can be circumvented by buying from multiple dealers.

Cocaine and abalone

The illegal abalone trade, a historic cornerstone of the organised crime economy in the province, now intersects with drug smuggling.

Gangs such as the Terrible Josters — whose leader Peter Jaggers was murdered this year over a botched R1  billion cocaine deal — have used abalone as a bartering commodity, trading it for precursor chemicals used in methamphetamine production.

But the report indicates these networks now play a more direct role in cocaine trafficking involving “boat-to-boat exchanges at sea”.

By embedding themselves in transnational drug trafficking networks, the gangs are poised to escalate their violence and power, which will have devastating consequences for coastal communities, the report warned.

Confronting the gangs

The report noted that restoring state legitimacy is a critical step to tackle this crisis. 

It also recommends strengthening oversight of ammunition sales, bolstering witness protection programmes and addressing systemic corruption in the police service.

Institute for Security Studies (ISS) crime hub manager Lizette Lancaster said there were no quick fixes to dismantling any organised crime network.

“One needs to fully understand how these networks operate and map them to understand who is involved, and that is very difficult when victims are too scared to speak up due to fear of retaliation. But it can be done through sustained efforts,” she said.

“It’s about increasing the pressure and making sure there are very safe reporting lines for victims. Victims need to feel they are protected against organised crime figures, and therefore corruption within the criminal justice system and within law enforcement needs to be eradicated,” she said. 

“There need to be safe spaces where cases can be dealt with without fear that the task teams or anti-corruption units are infiltrated, and that means a lot of integrity testing within the police and law enforcement agencies.”

A recent ISS report, titled Targeting Firearm Crime Will Make South Africa Safer, noted how the police service should use its crime administration system data to map station areas where gun crime is highest.

“The initial focus should be on provinces with the highest levels of firearm crime: Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga. This information should be used to support implementation of a focused strategy to reduce firearm crime,” the report noted.

Data collection and the recording, mapping and analysis of gun-related crimes must be improved. Based on this data, dedicated firearm crime reduction units with intelligence support should be established to focus on areas where gun violence is concentrated.

“Police measures to reduce firearm crime must be aligned with efforts to reduce the overall problem of firearm proliferation in South Africa, including more rigorous implementation of the Firearms Control Act and digitisation, anti-corruption and measures to strengthen the Central Firearms Registry,” according to the report.