South Africa’s Police Minister Firoz Cachalia has candidly admitted that the country’s security forces are not yet able to defeat the deadly criminal gangs that have plagued the nation. This stark admission underscores the scale of the country’s ongoing crime crisis.
Gang violence, along with robberies, accounts for a significant number of the murders in South Africa, which has one of the world’s highest homicide rates. Cachalia acknowledged that gang activity has become increasingly complex, particularly in the Eastern Cape and Western Cape provinces, requiring new strategies beyond traditional policing methods.
“I do not believe that we are currently in a position to defeat these gangs,” the minister told journalists on Wednesday. South Africa, the continent’s most industrialised nation, has long struggled with entrenched organised crime, and many citizens own licensed firearms for personal protection, while an even greater number of illegal guns circulate throughout the country.
Police data shows that an average of 63 people were killed each day between April and September last year. Cachalia’s comments came after a visit to the crime-ridden Nelson Mandela Bay region in the Eastern Cape, where he said criminal gangs were on a “killing spree” in the two provinces.
“We had a discussion about the problem of organised crime in the Eastern Cape, including extortion rackets, gang violence and related issues,” said the minister. “I indicated that this is a grave problem throughout the country, that these cartels wield significant wealth and power, and that this is deeply concerning.”
Despite the creation of an anti-gang unit in 2019, Cachalia acknowledged that the gangs appear to be winning the war. “Establishing gang units from time to time is an ad hoc response to a growing problem. I really don’t think that we should be approaching this matter in a point-scoring way,” he said.
The minister recognised that South African police are doing their best to fight the violence, but admitted “the problem is a growing one.” His comments come months after Nelson Mandela Bay was hit by a wave of killings, with 118 people dead between August and December last year, and around 40 more killed across the region in January.
With an estimated three million legally held firearms in South Africa, and at least the same number of unlicensed weapons in circulation, the country’s leaders face a daunting challenge in curbing the ongoing gang violence. President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised stronger law enforcement action and increased police deployment, but as Cachalia’s remarks indicate, the task of defeating these entrenched criminal networks remains formidable.