As commented below, the ANC soon found out it could not eliminate poverty by immediate distributions of cash (hence, lots of mercedes were bought). Centuries of race hatred, colonial manipulation of tribal groups and labor practices based on greed of ruling classes have only deepened already severe societal psychological problems. Someone also commented on a need of 'honest policemen'; someone else hinted on community MLK figures. Point being. sincere, dedicated, unselfish, even special human leadership is required at all levels. And then time. Good examples, strong structures, and time. The proper, willing and uncorrupted distribution of resources and unique, good and wise leadership grows not tomorrow or immediately, but, people willing for it, over time. We had a widely respected school chief and she is now in jail. The president of this troubled 'impoverished' country has a half billion dollars personally. We will have to sacrifice such things until time works selfless and real humanity in.
4
Spent 6 months in Sout Africa recently mostly in Capetown the corruption and violence is worse now than during apartheid
8
I studied abroad in Cape Town two years ago. While I was only in Cape Town for 5 months, I think the violence epidemic in Cape Town mirrors the crisis in many U.S. cities: The wealthy traditionally white suburbs (like the affluent areas of Oakland, Baltimore, Washington D.C., and other violent American cities) turn a generally blind eye to violence on the Cape Flats because it does not directly impact them. I had the privilege of tutoring at a school in Nyanga, one of the townships mentioned. The children were lively and generally well behaved, but the facilities and quality of instruction was woefully inadequate and far inferior to the schools in Rondebosch and Claremont. In addition, the school was extremely segregated (100% of the children were Xhosa). Until South Africa (and the U.S.) commits to educational equity, gun violence will remain a problem. Sure, guns are easily available in both countries, but we must ask why youth pick up guns in the first place? Yes, some fear for their lives, but many others, if not the vast majority, get involved because there are simply no other opportunities. Dealing with structural racism and institutional disinvestment (the ultimate root causes of gang violence in my opinion) will take more than investments in education, but it is an important start.
16
@Adrian You want to stop gun violence in cities? The ONLY way that has proven effective in the US is the NYC model. In NYC there is a mandatory prison sentence required by law for anyone found to be in possession of an illegal firearm regardless of race, wealth, gender, just ask Sebastian Telfair. It is treated as a serious crime and given a serious sentence. The result has been shootings in NYC have been reduced dramatically. No one likes to see young men in jail and young men don't enjoy going to jail so this has proven an effective deterrent. Chicago, Baltimore, St. Louis ect. all have weak punishment for illegal firearms and so people end up back on the street with another gun.
3
Great article. The NYT should publish more articles on the horrendous crime rate in South Africa, such as the countless carjackings in Johannesburg and the horrific rape rate in the country. Ask people why they are fleeing South Africa.
23
“Walk outside,” he said, “you’re probably going to get shot.”
It's so easy and quick for humanity to wash off our thin layer of civilization and become the beast underneath.
I would run from the trouble, but they say you can't hide. So stay and risk it? How about your kids?
No, as the U.S. Army says, "We never retreat; we just regroup in a stronger position," which happens to be many miles away from the last battle line.
Perpetual neighborhood warfare is just not my thing. You gotta know when to hold 'em, and when to fold 'em.
3
Black Africans used to emigrate TO South Africa during Apartheid. Now they leave or die if they stay.
5
Sounds like Chicago and Baltimore. Both governed by liberals of course for the past 40 years. I noticed all the murders in those cities this year. Of course not one word in this paper blaming the liberals like Trump was blamed for the mass shootings.
8
Sounds not too different from the the South Side of Chicago, west and south of downtown St. Louis, as well as large swaths of Baltimore and Detroit. Minus the military presence that is.
7
The ANC has now been in charge for almost 3 decades, and in that time they have failed to develop the country and instead focused on stealing everything in sight. Mandela may have been a great revolutionary leader but he failed to develop the economy and failed to install good successors or hold them to account. Perhaps Ramaphosa will be able to turn things around, but I don't think anyone's holding their breath. In the meantime perhaps the people of South Africa take some comfort in the fact that it's a black boot on their necks instead of a white one.
31
Great photography and tangible personal perspectives.
In general, Cape Town is one of the safest cities in South Africa.
This (horrendous) violence is largely gang-on-gang, and highly concentrated. Better to compare Cape Town to Chicago: specific crime in some parts of the South Side don't make the whole of Chicago dangerous.
The root causes are multiple - and include Apartheid forced removals, segregated urban planning, failure of the education system, youth unemployment.
It's doubtful whether military intervention will address any of these root causes.
Looking forward to more insightful NYT reporting on the topic.
14
This can be no surprise to anyone familiar with Africa's recent history. Post apartheid South Africa is repeating the history of just about every other post independence sub-Saharan country, crippled by corruption, crime, and chaos. Given African governments' inability/unwillingness to provide either economic or societal security, combined with explosive population growth in an already hungry continent, far worse is to come.
33
All this over some cannabis? Legalize it, for heaven’s sake, and move on.
5
South Africa is in the process of legalising - it is OK to possess small amounts but not to distribute and we have our first legal grow houses set up.
As with many countries however legalising does not automatically lead to a breakdown in criminal networks - maybe for those whose were exclusively dealing in weed, but the criminalisation of weed has forced it into much more sinister networks.
Most of the drugs these gangs are involved in dealing are much harsher - tik (methamphetamine), heroine, mandrax (introduced by the apartheid government). They’re also linked increasingly to global syndicates dealing in cocaine to the upmarket parts of Cape Town and international supply chains of poached perlemoen/abalone and even human trafficking.
2
Cape Town and Chicago have a lot in common!
15
It doesn't work. They've done it several times in my home country of Brazil; the army has been in Rio for almost a year. A few months ago the army shot over 80 bullets into the car of an innocent family, killing the father of a baby who was also in the car but survived on the lap of his mum. Violence just begets more violence. What is needed in violent Southern cities is investment from the government into education, job generation, activities for youths, infrastructure. These young people who join gangs do it because they have no way out and are groomed by the violent thugs who run them. But they always end up wasting money in these types of interventions which solve absolutely nothing and just escalate the violence.
9
The lesson here, as in America, is that oppressive racism leaves a lingering stain that takes many generations to resolve. In RSA and in the American south, blacks didn't suddenly become educated and prosperous just because the legally-enforced oppressed status was technically lifted. Building a decent life for those who have been systematically laid low is a centuries-long endeavor.
Now we have a president who would move America in the direction of more, not less, racism - a man who, by refusing to let blacks live in his properties, tried to create his own little island of apartheid. If you voted for a man who said Mexicans are rapists, look at the fruit of racism in South Africa.
10
Yea gangs shoot each other in Cape Town and Chicago because of racism. Give me a break
9
@Jomo The legacy of racism is not the problem. In the article it mentions that all of sub Saharan Africa has this problem and those countries never had apartheid. The reality is corruption. Ethical, transparent government and African leadership are incompatible. The entire continent speaks to this tragedy.
10
So when are we going to stop making excuses? Poverty, economic struggle, income inequality, call these social ills what you will, they do not excuse violent gangster behavior, whether here in Baltimore and Chicago or in Cape Town, South Africa. The breakdown of the family unit, combined with irresponsible sexual behaviors and lack of respect for others, are the prime drivers behind young people seeking for meaningfulness in their lives. Gangs flourish in this type of environment. The solution must come from within the community through strong leaders, not by the outside society throwing money at fairytale projects. Where are the MLKs when you need them? Not in any of the Democratic hopefuls now on stage.
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@Joe Gagen and I guess the increased access to guns has nothing to do with it?
7
“It’s the guns that changed everything,” Mr. Myburgh said. “And there were far too many guns on the street.” Cape Town and Chicago are mirror images. To date, 1,716 people have been shot. Guns must be treated like Polio or HIV, a deadly disease.
8
Soldiers aren't trained as policemen and are as corruptible as policemen.
Legalizing drugs would put the drug gangs out of business (just as repeal of prohibition put the bootleggers out of business). But if the gangs are supporting themselves by extortion, as in Honduras and Salvador, that won't solve the problem. It is complete social breakdown, Hobbes's state of nature, a war of all against all in which there is no penalty, or fear of penalty, for crime.
The only solution is to saturate the area, over a long time, with honest policemen, so that the risk of committing a crime exceeds the benefit. That's how Britain, in the early 19th Century, reclaimed its cities from the gangs of the time.
14
“Cry Freedom” main character Steve Bieko would weep if he could see what his beloved country has turned into today. I’d like to visit CapeTown, but the murder rate even surpasses my former resident city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania where gun murders are occurring 24/7 now. We won’t venture back there either!
19
Silva's photograph leading this story is outstanding.
3
@Jeffrey Loving
Joao Silva is a living legend. Am grateful his being out on the Flats documenting history with his exceptional eye, as always.
I can't think of any cases where army intervention into civilian violence has brought good results. The ANC has wasted a quarter century during which they could have done much more than they've tried to do to fix South Africa's structural problems. It's a bit late now. Not that the problems never could be fixed, but that fixing them takes a long time, and in the meantime the results of all this neglect have brought a sense of crisis. It doesn't speak well for human beings that we see forms of this sort of problem all around the world.
7
@Stephen Merritt Mandela would roll over in his grave if he knew what a totally corrupt creature his ANC has become.
14
I grew up in Cape Town and spent some time in my youth in the Cape Flats, which was unusual for a person of European heritage at the time. Two points: this endemic violence was always there. The Cape Flags is essentially a sand dune with grim cheap housing erected on it and poor transport links. People were forced to move there. Though violence has surged, it was always there but simply got less attention. It’s an apartheid legacy that was left to fester.
Second - the exiting minority government and the incoming ANC government explicitly agreed not to meaningfully redistribute South Africa’s considerable wealth - which could have helped revive these areas and provide better education etc. Yes, it would have been a Marshall Plan scale investment. But instead they chose to ‘grow’ their way out of extreme income inequality through a neoliberal economic agenda that left wealth in much the same (white, multinational) hands as during apartheid. The world applauded. Look what happened.
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@K What happened is that the white farmers have seen 3,000 deaths in their population, by murder, since the ANC seized power. That's 10% of the total number of white farmers in South Africa.
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@K Thank you for this comment. I lived and worked in South Africa a decade ago, and you nailed it. Unfortunately, many people in the US tend to have an esoteric understanding at best of on the ground realities anywhere on earth. But lack of informed perspective doesn't keep them from sharing their opinions.
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@K Next door, in Zimbabwe, the government did decide to "meaningfully redistribute" wealth, as you delicately phrase it. The result has been hyperinflation, a worthless currency and, worst of all, food shortages in a country that used to be the region's breadbasket. Apartheid left a horrible economic and social legacy in South Africa, but that does not automatically indicate a remedy of confiscation and redistribution.
12
The quote “It’s the guns that changed everything” haunts me.
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There's an old saying: "When you send the Army to do the work of the Police, you just corrupt the Army". Beware easy fixes.
15
Who will guard the guards? Themselves?
5
This is what happens when the inmates take over the asylum. Then again, Cape Town is no worse than Detroit, Baltimore, or Chicago, where, by the way, 40 people were shot and 8 people died of their wounds this past weekend alone. If ever the national Guard was needed in the streets, Chicago today is a prime example.
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@paul I can assure you, any of the US cities you mentioned is nothing like the Cape Flats, Nyanga, Guguletu etc. The people living in those areas dream of living in places like Baltimore, Detroit and Chicago. Nelson Mandelo and Steve Bieko are shedding tears as to the lost opportunities of this wonderful City.
11
I'm currently moving to Cape Town and am constantly surprised by how poor media coverage is and how racist the American response is to it. This isn't a call for eugenics or decreasing population or a return to white rule.
The Cape Flats area has a serious gang problem, but let's be clear about three things (1) it is an economic problem, (2) a minority of people are members of gangs, and (3) the vast majority of people are genuinely nice and just want to get on with their lives.
The deployment of the military is only a stopgap solution. A long-term solution must deal with the economic inequities institutionalized through Apartheid and continued racial segregation. This is no different than poor communities in American cities where white families fled and redlining and other policies kept low-income communities in place.
Addressing these challenges will be politically difficult without major reforms. But it starts by leveling the playing field and creating a pathway to opportunity.
For those who've never been to Cape Town, it's a beautiful city full of kind and welcoming people.
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It is very reassuring to know that less than half of the population are gang members. I’ll book a flight.
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@Stephen
And what about the drugs? And poaching of seafood?
10
@Stephen Capetown was a wonderful place to live in the first half of the last century. Same can be said for Rhodesia and Kenya.
21
Everyone can write about it's this & it's that. But what it is is basically the same where ever gangs rule. Illegal Drugs & the Guns needed to enforce the trade. There is too much money involved and officials end up getting corrupted. Society breaks down. The article says it. The answer is the same the world over. Legalize it and regulate it. Most of the violence & corruption will end.
14
70% unemployment rate!!! With levels of poverty so high and jobs unavailable, one takes the job that is offered, and that offer comes from the drug gangs. The tagedy of this situation is that, by the time Mandela was released from prison, he was already an old man, and Mbeki, who followed him was corrupt.
27
The apartheid system was not capable, nor was it designed to be capable, of meeting the needs of Black South Africans. That government was incapable of providing housing, education and infrastructure to the majority of South Africans. Apartheid is gone now and the Democratic government of South Africa is incapable of providing housing, education and infrastructure to it's people. In addition it is incapable of protecting minorities or maintaining public order. The issue is over-population.
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@willt26
The Apartheid government chose not to provide housing, education and infrastructure. It was part of the evil plan. Unfortunately the ANC have failed miserably in making any substantive changes for the people who needed it.
3
When you have a massive housing shortage and a population that is growing by a million a year you will never solve your housing crisis.
3
I work with a South African guy who is in the US on a work visa. He said he would never go back to South Africa as it is violent and dangerous and an all around mess and most of his friends from school have left.
(I don’t see any liberals protesting for his right to asylum but I don’t mean to digress.....).
He said if he can’t get a Green Card he will move to the UK as his wife is a citizen.
This man is educated and skilled. I am very pessimistic over South Africa’s future as its best and brightest are fleeing.
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Is he applying for asylum? I don’t understand why you even implied that liberals wouldn’t fight for his right to apply for asylum.
3
Interesting to see the comparison of the violence in Baltimore to that of Cape Town, as normally that isn’t done when writing about violent crime in foreign places.
26
I witnessed apartheid first-hand as an American college student traversing South Africa enroute to a semester abroad in an independent, neighboring country.
No one who witnessed such evils, or, God help them, lived through them, could call the present situation worse. It was so shockingly awful that it knocked the breath out of you. I will never forget, or forgive, the Boers for the blistering racism I witnessed. No one should.
Our bigots on Twitter sound more like them every day.
It is obvious that economic inequality, easy access to guns and unemployment are at the root of today's troubles. It will take time, accelerated, I pray, with help from abroad. But this is the start of a precious democracy.
This young nation needs our support.
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@Bohemian Sarah - Apartheid was a horrific evil and it should not be forgotten. However, ethnic groups are not monolithic - not all "Boers" were the same. It is a bit like equating all Americans with Trump. (Which, sadly, does happen and I take great pains when visiting my homeland to make sure to stress that not all Americans are the same bigoted racists).
The current situation is still preferable to the Apartheid era. However, almost 25 years later South Africa is sliding into chaos and help from abroad is starting to trickle out. It is painful to witness this as someone who once held high hopes of a rainbow nation leading the powerhouse of Africa.
21
@Bohemian Sarah I lived in Cape Town for almost two years. I am Venezuelan and my colour of skin isn't particularly white. Many 'Boers' were and are my friend. Belonging to one ethnicity doesn't automatically condition your way of thinking. True, they should learn better from their past and make amendments for the future, but if Madiba could forgive, I think everyone can.
31
Simple fact of life: people, with rare exceptions are corrupted when given the opportunity - power- to be corrupt. A society can tamp down the natural selfish nature of man only with very strong institutions. That is the gift our founders gave us: strong institutions and a framework to move forward. That is also what corrupt and powerful men seek to undermine. Do you think it is a coincidence that bad people are always claiming the government is the problem. No regulations, there is a deep state, the Intelligence agencies don’t know what they are doing, etc. why do you think an Australian is behind Fox News- Murdoch? Do you think he loves America or personal power? He abandoned his country for power and money. Mandela and South Africa had no chance to right this ship, they had no capable institutions for an anti-apartheid world.
17
@Billy Bobby
I would say that the current gov't is better described as "post" than anti apartheid.
I also think it is incorrect to paint South Africa as having no viable institutions. Or even weak ones. They have rule of law but they also have a fair amount of corruption.
The institutions (aside from some elected officials) are not the problem. How does any place overcome its past without a concerted effort from all those within and without. The amount of economic inequality didn't just pop up, it was a feature of apartheid. Those white people still have a vastly disproportionate share of the wealth. The same goes for the places in Latin America. The only reason it goes unnoticed here is because non-white people have been the minority, which is to say easy to ignore.
4
This piece omits the primary driver for the explosion in violence, which is the hopeless existence for black South Africans living in townships. Nyanga is a township outside Cape Town. The differences between life in Nyanga and life in central Cape Town shocks the conscience. One of Nelson Mandela's most important promises was to provide blacks with decent housing and to dismantle the townships. This promise remains unfulfilled.
For those readers unfamiliar with the creation of townships, they were established during the early days of apartheid. Black South Africans were forced to leave their homes and communities, and were relocated into these barren ghettoes. The government provided almost nothing in the way of necessary services. No one living in townships had indoor plumbing or electricity. Homes are constructed with bits and pieces of discarded building materials found in garbage dumps.
It is now over twenty years since Mandela delivered his critical promise to black South Africans. He was a beloved leader and people believed that he and his party would deliver on their promise. Since Mandela's death, the ANC has taken the patience of black South Africans for granted. SA represents the greatest hope for a future Africa, but the systemic deprivations imposed upon blacks living in townships must quickly improve or civil order will continue to erode in surrounding areas.
30
Population is growing fast in South Africa- faster than housing can be built. There was a housing shortage in 1994. today there are 17,000,000 more people in South Africa. They will never address the housing shortage. People are creating the crisis.
28
So the question is, with the ANC in power for the last 25 years, why is this the situation? The answer is: corruption, nepotism, cronyism, incompetence, a quest for power without the commitment to truly govern effectively, immediate enrichment without an inspiring vision for future, lack of care for wellbeing of the general population, no commitment to education, infrastructure, healthcare, or building a strong economy that lifts all, etc...the list goes on and on. In sum, the country is void of true leadership while the ruling elite still bask in the glory of the victory over Apartheid a quarter century ago. So sad given all the hope in 1994 around Mandela’s election and the unrealized potential of the continent’s largest economy.
43
As soon as the army leaves....As bad as things seem to be, why is the military leaving? Are they at war with a neighboring country, a global conflict? Stay in the neighborhoods, rather like the old beat cops, each military unit should stay, get to know the streets, gangs, people; meanwhile, change the laws on drugs, guns- whatever it takes to either get them off the streets or legalize them.
Having them under the control of the local police- not sure that’s a good idea.
6
Cape Town recently came close to Day Zero - when the taps run completely dry. When that day eventually does hit, the violence is likely to get even worse, at least temporarily.
20
I picked up a new bio of Ramaphosa in SA last year whose dust jacket’s proclaimrd that SA was on the verge of being a “failed state.” Naively going behind the tourist waterfront veil to downtown Cape Town on a Saturday afternoon, I found both the SA museums of history and art closed. The only white South African in the whole area told me her husband was desperately trying to find work anywhere in the British Commonwealth to save them from their national Titanic. What a shock that African kleptocracy is just as effective at ruining the richest country on the continent as it is poorer ones! Mandela’s “legacy” is becoming a cruelty joke. Where is Naipaul when we need him?
76
She and her husband should emigrate to the US.
12
My son was stabbed to death in Cape Town as he was mugged on his way to his university digs. He was 21. Nine years on, I still feel accountable for what happened to him as part of a society that continues to be indifferent to what is essentially incredibly complex sociological issues: unemployment, poor education, lack of proper health services, lack of housing and proper urban planning, loss of hope post apartheid South Africa. Can politicians and government do anything. The answer is no just because they aren’t qualified to do so. Change has to come from the South African civil society itself.
85
@Patti Giddy I am so sorry for your loss. Thank you for sharing your story.
17
@Patti Giddy
I'm sorry for your lost but I don't agree that they can't do anything. What I would say is they can't do anything alone. The vast majority of wealth is in the hands of white South Africans. Why don't all the communities come together to help make it a better nation instead of just the historically locked out low income communities who bear the brunt of economic and systemic violence?
1
Thank you @someone
Fabulous photography.
Better address the population/reproduction issue. The worse may be yet to come.
I have very little hope for Africa.... overpopulation, global warming, misogyny galore, tribalism, famine, ebola.
Perhaps this is a first step. BTW for the record, which cities in S. America are worse in terms of crime?
47
The overpopulation is going to be a disaster in Africa by mid century. It is already unsustainable. Europe will not want to absorb millions of migrants heading north, nor are they obligated to do so. The Europeans introduced vaccines, pennicillen, antibiotics, etc to Africa saving countless millions. But now there is rampant overpopulation.
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@Auntie Mame
This has nothing to do with population/reproduction. I think that kind of idea helped cause the chaos in Cape Town.
7
The government may have changed but the ‘idea’ of power still exists. Except for the few years of Mandela’s presidency, the ‘idea’ of power has not changed. It has just changed from white to black corrupt leaders. Most of the people have no power to make the needed changes.
8
No different then Yugoslavia or Iraq, once a strong ruling power is removed, chaos follows. Perhaps the world will finally start to understand that the concepts of freedom and democracy are mentally insatiable for many.
26
I sincerely hope I’m mistaken, but it sounds like you’re implying that apartheid was a positive force in South Africa. If that’s the case, I’d invite you to read about the horrors it wrought. The vast amount of material from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a good place to start. If you still feel like apartheid was a good thing, then the next step would be to examine your attitudes vis a vis race
42
That’s a straw man fallacy, not what he said.
I think he’s referring to regime change and unintended consequences. Replacing one bad situation with another that you perceive to be better that actually ends up being worse or just as bad.
Which would be a good conversation to have for many countries who seek to police the world or militaries that oust their existing governments.
19
I tell people population growth is the main reason it is impossible to solve the problems of places like South Africa. Often people respond, no it is distribution of wealth. The truth is if all the Whites of South Africa left and the land and wealth was distributed, it would be only a few years before was back into the same situation. South Africa needs to implement a one child policy which will stay in effect for the next 50 years. They need to build school for all children and expect them to attend until the age of 16. Good liberals from America should go and volunteer to work in those schools. They need to build water and sewer projects. They need to ban migrants from other parts of Africa and Asia because they do not have the resources to take care of their own people and can't hope to take care of people from other places. South African foreign exchange students need to be expected to return to help their own people. Of course none of this will happen. They will just spiral downward.
91
Each White Boer farm feeds on average 3000 people each year in South Africa. If those farms are seized and redistributed, the result will be mass famine and probably collapse along the lines of nearby Rhodesia-Zimbabwe.
76
@Michael Green Compared to Europe and Asia, Africa is vastly UNDERpopulated and it always has been. Of course, forced enslavement by more advanced societies reduced its population once, too. Some anthropologists believe that civilization cannot take root without sufficient masses of people. Not that violence and famine don't happen -- they do and have in places much more advanced today -- but African polities will have to rise to overcome those occasions like every other society has. Meanwhile, it is awful these killings of innocents and not-so-innocents. I wonder if they could legalize cannabis in South Africa and let the desperate gangs have a piece or most of that trade. Then they will see the need for law and order to continue their profits. Everybody could be made to prefer peace when their basic sustenance needs are met. The perpetrators of violence may act like monsters, but they're men. Africa is NOT overpopulated. Neither is the United States, but that's another post...
8
The main reason as it is in Honduras, Guatemala and other places is toxic masculinity. Address that even with draconic measures and these countries will improve. I t would address Overpopulation as well. These crimes are committed by males and for the record, SA has an extremely high rate of rape as well.
15
Nelson Mandela, said in his inaugural speech (1994), with a fierce but hopeful optimism, “never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another.”
He's got to be turning in his grave with what's happening in South Africa, 25 years after the chains of apartheid were severed.
65