1. Gangsterism

2. DEFINITION
The traditional view of gangs is that of skollies on street corners and in dark alleys. But today’s gangs are pretty organised.
A gang usually consists of a group of members who consider themselves a team or a family.
They may wear specific colours or emblems and use special hand signals. They may hang out in a particular place, creating an atmosphere of fear and intimidation in the community, and they may engage in criminal activity.

3. TYPE OF GANGS STREET GANGS
Street gangs have developed into organized criminal empires. 
These days, street gangs are nothing less than operational fronts for organized crime syndicates.  The youngsters who belong to the gangs sell drugs and kill in order to graduate up the ranks
Each gang normally has its own turf, which its members guard with their lives against other gangs. Here they conduct their illicit activities, which include prostitution, drug dealing and shebeens
the Americans, the Hard Livings,
the Sexy Boys, the School Boys
and the Junky Funky Kids

4. PRISON GANGS
Gangs that are found in South African prisons
The Number Gang (26’s, 27’s and 28’s)are the most notorious gang
The 26’s are the scammers and counterfeiters. They are in charge accumulating wealth.
The 27’s are murderers and violent criminals. They are in charge of righting the wrongs through punishment and revenge.
The 28’s are the sex offenders. They are the bloodline of the Number’s gang. It is important
for the 28’s to prove their
manhood.

5. PRISON GANGS CONTINUED…
John Mongrel is a psychopathic immate who is the leader of the 28s gang in Pollsmoor prison. Mongrel entered Pollsmoor in 1987 at the age of 14 and immediately took a liking for gang life. He wanted to become a 28 and therefore killed one of his cell mates by stabbing him through the heart. This was done before Mongrel's 15th birthday.Unlike other prisons Mongrel has ensured that the 28s are top of the chain in Pollsmoor Prison and demands that the other numbers listen to every word he says. Should a 27 member step out of line Mongrel will carry out the duty of killing these members himself, a ritual that is far from the teachings passed down.Numbers vary but it is believed that Mongrel has been responsible for over 1000 deaths inside Pollsmoor either directly or indirectly in his 26 years in the prison. Mongrel gained international notoriety when he was featured on the TV series Ross Kemp on Gangs. Kemp said Mongrel was the scariest man he had ever met. He went on to say "The memory of his breath will stay with me for a long time – it smelled like road kill left out in the sun. Since he'd been inside, he'd cut out a warder's eye and he rapes a different inmate every three weeks. He described how he kills with a toothbrush melted to a point. He was heavily tattooed but, instead of needles, he'd use a razor blade”
John Mongrel features at the end of
Ross Kemp on Gangs (Keep an eye out for it)

6. INITIATION
When joining a street gang, often times there is an initiation that needs to be passed. This initiation is usually a violent crime that could include theft, murder, gang-rape, or drive-by shootings of innocent people
When joining a prison gang it often involves killing prison wardens / members of other gangs as well as raping other gang members.

7. WHO JOINS?
Increasing numbers of children, as young as 11, become the hitmen because, if caught, they are unlikely to go to jail.
There are more than 100,000 gang members in 137 gangs in the Cape Peninsula.

8. WHY DO PEOPLE JOIN? To belong and have an identity
To be with friends or family members
To have security / protection
For excitement
For a sense of purpose
For power
To earn money
Intimidation

9. GANG RECRUITMENT TACTICS
Gangs pressure kids into gangs by using the following methods: • Peer pressure, offer protection. • Threaten safety of friends or family members. • Offer money for what appears to be simple activities. • Challenge kids to take risks. • Attend parties where gang related activities are occurring. • Family members already belong to a gang.

10. CONSEQUENCES OF GANG INVOLVEMENT
Short Term: • In trouble with the law • Drop out of school. • Withdrawal from family. • Risk of injury in a "jump-in" by your own gang. • Drug trafficking/weapons. • Involvement in "dirty-work."
Long Term: • Lose opportunity for education and employment. • Spend time in jail or prison. • Possibility of losing family and friends. • Risk of personal injury. • Risk your own family's life. • Endless amounts of threats, assaults and drive-by shootings
Death

11. LANGUAGE Some gangs have their own language
Sabela is the most common language that gang members use.
It is a combination of English, Zulu and Afrikaans
It provides secrecy, as no one can understand them
It fosters feelings of eliteness, as gang members have their own private communication

12. TATTOOS
Pigment will come from grinding up rubbish bins, industrial rubber washers, batteries, or bricks or ink from pens. This will then be mixed with saliva, and wants to be pushed under the skin with nails pulled out of furniture, or sewing needles.
Tattoos may convey rankings within the hierarchy of the number, may be testimonies to a crime committed, or may sometimes be a rather more personal statement: like a message of blame, threat, or regret, or a tribute to a loved one.
A "Numbers" gangster can read another's life story simply through the markings he has. The gallows symbol signifies the bearer faced the death sentence, before it was outlawed.
Walt Disney’s signature script is a font with special and top-secret significance
A tear drop can be an indication of a murder carried out.
The Fast Guns in South Africa often have the letters FG tattooed between the index finger and thumb of the left hand.
Four stars on the shoulder area indicates rank as does a crown.

18. TRUE STORY
Benedict [this is a false name] is 26 years old and he spent the last ten years in Pollsmoor being part of the 28s, the oldest and most violent gang in prison. After being released in January, he started helping people from townships to avoid such bad things. ‘I was a criminal and I always carried a gun, because I had no fear towards the police.’
Benedict was sentenced to prison in the year 2000, because he robbed a supermarket. In the beginning, he had to spend four years in jail, but then trouble started when he joined the fatal gang. ‘I knew that to survive in prison you had to join a gang, so I joined the 28s. To join the 28s you have to kill someone in prison and then they want the blood of the one you killed, because it’s like your CV when you go for an interview they want something that proves you’re worthy. They gave me a knife and I did what I had to do.’
For this murder, he was sentenced to another six years in Pollsmoor, but after the incident he felt at ease in the knowledge that he wouldn’t be abused by any other gangs. ‘If you don’t join one of the gangs you are like a slave. I had one guy who cleaned my cell every day and he couldn’t object. I was one of the 28s and everybody knew that we controlled the prison.’
A lot of prisoners die in prison, because they don’t want to join the obvious gangs. ‘I’ve seen people beaten and killed just because the general of the gang wanted to show others our strength.’

19. TRUE STORY CONTINUED…
There are very few prisoners in Pollsmoor who are confident that the wardens will protect them. Under the new system (after Apartheid) however, the wardens have become targets. ‘The Numbers’ are well aware that the consequences of their actions will not result in a beating or even the death penalty and therefore, new initiates are encouraged to stab a warden or even to attempt to take his eye out.
‘Not one of the inmates who are abused by gang members will go to the wardens to confess what happens, as they know they will probably die if they do. Sometimes the really nervous and afraid prisoners write on a paper what they want to say and throw the paper on the ground in the corridors hoping that a warden will read it and do something useful to help them.’
Some of the new proposals to stop the gang’s power in the prison include the idea of separating new inmates from the common cells controlled by the gangs, and by doing this, they hope it will stop the gangs from growing. Another proposal was for the government to install multiple video cameras in the cells to see what really happens during the night when no one controls the inmates. It said that this is illegal, because of the prisoner’s right to privacy. However, some say that people who have abused and killed other inmates have given up their right to privacy and that gang members must be combated quickly and harshly before it is too late.
People like Benedict seem to have few other solutions but to join the gang if they don’t want to die or to be severely abused. This is the prison’s rules, ‘I was wrong,’ Benedict said, ‘but I wanted to stay alive.’

20. TRUE STORY CONTINUED…
The 28s are organised in a rigid hierarchical way. There is the lord, then the generals, then the captains and then the Jimesten. ‘I was a captain. I was in charge of enforcing the rules within the gang. If one of the gang members did something wrong I could judge him and sentence him. The punishment depended on how serious your case was, you could be beaten, but you could also be raped or killed. Rape is viewed as a display of his power and seniority within the gang. For them the perpetration of sexual acts is not for gratification or sexual pleasure, but primarily to dominate and conquer a weaker person.
Benedict stated that he will always be really disappointed in himself for choosing that path and he remembers what he saw in that prison for all the time he spent there. ‘People go crazy in jail,’ Benedict said rather calmly after he sipped his dry Savana, ‘I’ve seen every kind of brutality. Can you imagine gang members killing their inmates and then watching them drink the dead’s blood, just to show to the gang they are strong and ruthless?’
In the 28s it is important to prove your manhood and this will help one move up on the rankings. A member may get a higher status depending on how high their stabbing or killing rates are. ‘It was a really hard life, but I’m a strong man now. Many times I felt stressed and I couldn’t sleep, because of the terrible things I saw or had done. In those sad moments, I smoked Mandrax in my cell. It was the only way to relax and not think about what was going on around me.’Shockingly enough, Mandrax is easy to find in the courtyard of the prison.
‘We had an hour to spend outside per day and I knew who would sell me Mandrax,’ said Benedict. ‘He was regularly in the corner of the yard and all I had to say was how much I wanted.’

21. TRUE STORY CONTINUED…
Benedict is out of Pollsmoor and he now works for an NGO which promotes the right to a positive self development for young ex-prisoners in the poor township areas. He’s no longer a gangster nor is he taking drugs, however he’s still living in a dangerous area. When he left the gang after prison, the other members told him, ‘you are going to die outside of here, trust us.’ Yet, he doesn’t seem scared of what could happen to him.
Apparently, people that join a gang like the 28s have to be part of the gang forever, but this was not in Benedict case. ‘I’m not scared of what they could do to me…they know that I know a lot of things about their gang, so they will not touch me. People in my town respect me and everybody knows that I was in Pollsmoor and that I was part of the 28s because I have their tattoos on my body.’
Benedict is also a soccer teacher now and he is training children from his area. He believes this will give him a different perspective on life. ‘My team is really good,’ he said smiling. ‘I think playing football is a good way to spend one’s time instead of taking drugs and living on the streets. When I was a younger I grew up without a father. I became a criminal, because I had no one to show me how to live a good life and how to be a good person. I didn’t have money to survive and I needed money for my mother and me, so I started to live like a criminal taking drugs, drinking and robbing. I don’t want other children to do what I did.’
‘If you live like a criminal you will go to jail, and I wouldn’t wish ten years in Pollsmoor on anyone.’

22. HOW TO AVOID GANGS Find positive alternatives
Get a sense of belonging by making friends with people who are not gang members
Start extra-curricular and weekend activities so that you’re seldom alone and can’t be easily pressurized
Join sports clubs for excitement
Remember that this is your life
Only you can live it. And you
have the freedom of choice

23. WATCH “ROSS KEMP ON GANGS”