A long history of being fed up: Anti-crime mobilisation on the Cape Flats: A case study

• Author: van der Spuy, E.
• Date: 17 November 2021
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v34/i2a6
• Pages: 281-306
• Published date: 17 November 2021
• Citation: (2021) 34 SACJ 281

A long history of being fed up:1

Anti-crime mobilisation on the

Cape Flats: A case study2

ELRENA VAN DER SPUY*

ABSTRACT

Anti-cri me mobilisation has a long and chequered h istory in South A frica.

Over the years, such forms of mobil isation have come in various shapes

and sizes. In this paper, the authors explore one ex ample of a broad-based

anti-crime m obilisation that evolved on the Cape Flats f rom 1994 to 2006.

Documentar y analysis and eld data allow reec tion on the social context

within which the Western C ape Anti-Cri me Forum (WCACF) emerged,

and the political sensibi lities and social aspir ations that shaped its course.

The article considers t he local safety issues that domi nated the deliberations,

the mobilising strateg ies utilised, and the net works activated in pursuit

of community safet y. The social history of the Foru m as recounted here

hopefully provides insight i nto the key concerns of this par ticular initiative

as well as the kind of factors t hat shape, more generally, the fortunes and

misfortunes of ant i-crime all iances. Such insights may be of compar ative

use as the authors try to m ake sense of contemporary ma nifestations of a

myriad of instance s of anti-crime mobi lisation.

1 Introduction

South Africa, as Fourchard rem inds us, ‘has a long tradition of anti-cri me

organizations – civic or civilia n guards, parents’ courts, people’s courts,

neighbourhood watches, street committees, vigil ante organizations,

to mention just a few – which ght against both gang activities and

what is perceived as the social degeneration of township life’.3 On the

Cape Flats too, as others have outlined, anti-ga ng mobilisation too

1 During the cour se of 2018 the residents on the Cape Fl ats once again took to the

streets to make public t heir concerns about deplor able living conditions. A my riad

of structu res became involved in proces ses of social mobili sation. This ti me round

there was ery ta lk of being fed up or ‘gatvol’ (as local colloquialism would h ave it)

and promises of tota l shutdowns.

2 Ricky Rontsch and A nnie Kok assisted with arch iving the WCACF material as well as

editing the paper. Tha nks also go to two anonymous reviewers for thei r comments

on an earlier version of the p aper.

* MA (Stell) PhD (UCT), As sociate Professor, University o f Cape Town.

3 L Fourchard ‘The pol itics of mobilizat ion for security in So uth African town ships’

(2011) 110 Af r Aff 607 at 608.

https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v34/i2a6

281

(2021) 34 SACJ 281

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

has a chequered history.4 The historical contextua lisation provided by

Fourchard serves as a reminder of the ebb and ow of civic energies

concerned with the safety concerns of commu nities constitutive of

the South African p olity. It is against this wider historical ca nvass that

specic incidences of anti-cr ime mobilisation (such as the Western

Cape Anti-Cri me Forum – the subject of thi s paper) need to be situated.

At the end of 2017, a group of community activist s from the Cape

Flats convened at a venue situated in a northern suburb of Cape

Town. They assembled to discuss the deplorable state of safety

confronting ordinar y citizens who have long been trapped in lethal

conicts between r ival gangs on the Cape Flats. It was noted that

the latest spike in armed, organise d violence perpetrated by gangs

has had devastating effects on the com munities. Corruption in police

circles and collusion with illicit car tels have further aggravated the

safety situation on the ground. T he key question posed at the meeting

was how best to re-mobilise civic energies so as to project t he safety

concerns of local communities onto the politica l agenda of the city and

the province. A working group was tasked to organise a province-wide

summit where strategic deliberation s could take place.

On 24 March 2018, the summit was held in Pinelands. The event

was attended by 700 delegates with representation from communit y

police and community safety for ums, neighbourhood watches, street

patrollers, non-governmental organisations (NGO s) and community-

based organisations (CBOs) working in a wide range of sectors

primarily dr awn from areas of Coloured settlement on the fri nge

of metropolitan Cape Town. There was unanimous agreement that

the democratic state has failed in its con stitutionally dened duty to

provide safety and protection to citizens on the Flat s. The summit

resolved to establish the United Public Safety Front (UPSF). It was

tasked with the responsibility of mobi lising collective energies towards

safe communities and to do so in the spirit of ‘Unit y, Hope and

Opportunit y for all’. Three years down the line, the bold intentions of

the United Public Safety Front articu lated so clearly at the summit are

still to translate into sust ainable action. This loss of momentum on the

part of the UPSF has provided scope for others to occupy the public

space. What has become clear is that both percept ions and experiences

of marginalisation of com munities on the Cape ats continue to fuel

collective actions. Promises of total shutdowns and people bandying

4 BE Van Wyk & WH Theron ‘Fighti ng gangsterism in Sout h Africa: a contex tual

review of gang and anti- gang movements in the Western Cape’ (2005) 18 Acta Cr im

51–6 0.

282 SACJ . (2021) 2

https://doi.org/10.47348/SACJ/v34/i2a6

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd