This highly lucrative alternative economy began to bloom and spread in full during the 1980s when criminals and drug lords who cooperated with the state were allowed to flourish.
But there was a grander scheme – to numb resistance to state repression and to destabilise “troublesome” communities. At the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) it was revealed that Jackie Lonte, then leader and founder of the Americans, had worked with the deadly Civil Cooperation Bureau.
Today, several gang-ravaged areas on the Cape Flats are caught in a deadly turf war. In Mitchells Plain alone, six people were gunned down in two days in February 2021 in a feud between the 28s gang and rival splinter groups. It is a relentless battle for supremacy in the lucrative drug trade.