Grassy Park, a suburb in Cape Town, South Africa, bears a disproportionate burden of gang-related violent crime. The concentration of gang violence has eroded the ability of local government – including education, social services, housing and healthcare, as well as policing and the criminal justice system – to function effectively. A concentration of effort in response to gang violence, coordinated among different branches of government, is needed in Grassy Park and similar areas – other ‘concentrations of violence’ – to break this vicious cycle.
About the author
Julia Stanyard is a Senior Analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s Observatory of Illicit Economies in East and Southern Africa. Her recent research has covered the Wagner Group in Africa, crime and conflict in Mozambique and gang-related violence in South Africa.
Image: © Southern Mail
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