The bloodthirsty Cape Town gangs surrounding the new Love Island villa – who’ve triggered a kidnapping & murder pandemic
CAPE Town is currently gripped by a blood-soaked battle being waged between terrifying gangs who make recruits kill children to show loyalty and have even used gang rape as a method of revenge.
But the troubled city is also the home of the new Love Island villa — where housemates will be moving in on Sunday.
But the show's production team aren't oblivious to the violence in Cape Town.
A Love Island insider told the : "Producers aren’t taking any chances. It’s been arranged for armed guards to patrol the compound throughout the series.
“They will have them surrounding the area so there is no chance of any breaches...
“If it’s known to everyone in the area that a big TV show is in town, then it will become a target. There are concerns there could be kidnap attempts if things aren’t done carefully.”
Police statistics show that around 16 people are kidnapped or abducted every day in South Africa, where gangs make a killing extorting cash out of their victims' loved ones.
But increasingly ruthless organised crime has caused violence to spiral out of control too.
When more than 1,000 murders were committed in just six months in 2019, the South African Army was sent in to try and stop the violence in the Cape Flats area of the southeast of the city.
And the rising tide of bloodshed in recent years has pushed Cape Town up the rankings of the world's most dangerous cities.
The scale of the violence is staggering — so severe in some areas that schools and ambulance services can't operate.
In 2017 in London, where violent street crime has become a major public issue, there were 1.2 murders for every 100,000 residents in the city.
By contrast, there were 66.4 murders for every 100,000 residents in Cape Town last year — the 11th-highest killing rate of any city on earth, surpassed only by cartel-crippled regions in Latin America.
In December, a five-year-old boy was shot dead in the Lavender Hill neighbourhood of the Cape Flats, which is one of the most troubled parts of Cape Town.
And earlier in the month, primary school student Ayesha Kelly was killed when she was hit by the crossfire of a gang shootout — she was 10 years old.
Even an eight-month-old baby was shot along with three men in Mitchell's Plain to the south of Cape Town in May.
Despite the efforts of authorities, gangs continue to threaten and terrorise the city.
Simone Haysom, who authored a book about violence in the Flats, says organised crime is thriving on an unprecedented scale.
"The gangs still feed on state neglect and social dysfunction," she told the .
"But the territorial control, the profits and the violence are vastly greater than they have ever been before."
Here are some of the most notorious gangs in Cape Town.
Founders burned alive and shot
Name: The Hard Livings
Known for: Both founders being murdered on the same street
The Hard Livings are one of Cape Town's "super gangs", founded in the early 1970s by identical twin brothers — Rashied and Rashaad Staggie.
They're sometimes called the "Cape Town Krays" after the legendary East End Kray Twins, and they swore to the Union Jack to show their opposition to their biggest rival gang, The Americans.
The Staggie twins came to run the Flats' organised crime and were said to drive around in gold BMW convertibles throwing wads of cash to people as a statement of their wealth.
But they formed a determined enemy in a vigilante group, the People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad), who believed police were failing in their roles and matters needed to be taken into their own hands.
One night in August 1996, Rashaad was confronted by Pagad members as he pulled up in his car on London Road in the Salt River suburb.
They shot him and, as he stumbled from his car, he was set on fire with a molotov cocktail while he was still alive, burning him to death.
Brother Rashied then rose up to be the boss of the gang, overseeing horrific crimes to keep control.
In 2003, he was convicted of ordering the sickening gang rape of a 17-year-old girl who turned a state witness against him.
During a court case, in his defence: "I don't rape people — I'm a brutal murderer."
But just last month, Rashied died in a blizzard of bullets as he sat in his car on the same road where his brother burned.
US-obsessed dealers with a death wish
Name: The Americans
Known for: Bringing crystal meth to Cape Town
The Americans, Cape Town's other super gang, are thought to be the largest and most violent criminal outfit in the city boasting over 5,000 members.
Their name comes from an identification with American symbols like the White House, Uncle Sam, and the stars and stripes of the American flag.
It's thought that an appreciation for American television and films like Rambo and The Godfather gave the gang its identity, while other yankophile crime groups in Cape Town include the Ugly Americans and the JFKs.
The Americans, known to have members as young as 12, are blamed for starting the nefarious methamphetamine (or 'tik' in local lingo) trade which has led to violent turf wars.
But new recruits are told right from the beginning that they should be ready for violence from the moment they get The Americans' motto tattooed on their chest: "In God We Trust".
"The day I got my tattoo they told me, 'This is the day that you sign your death wish,' Americans member Neil Moses told .
"'You could die today, tomorrow, you could die anytime.' And I was ready for that."
Underworld puppeteers
Name: Sexy Boys Gang
Known for: Merciless control of the night-time economy in Cape Town
The Sexy Boys are known for their drug-running and extorting a "tax" on drivers to safely pass through their territory.
Although much of their leadership was locked up in the early 2000s on murder and weapons charges, the organisation has survived.
And they're already accused of spilling blood in 2020, with nightclub security boss Tim Lotter being gunned down in a suspected Sexy Boys hit.
It's thought that the assassination of Lotter, who ran Extreme Security Measures, was part of the gang's attempt to gain control over Cape Town's nightclubs and prostitution trades.
“Prior to his death Lotter was allegedly linked to the nightclub security controlled by the Sexy Boys and other underworld figures," a source close to the murder investigation told .
“It is alleged he jumped ship and joined forces with rivals in the underworld and when the Sexy Boys got wind of it, decided to take him out.
“His move to rival underworld figures would have resulted in huge financial losses to the Sexy Boys.”
Cut victim's face off to send to his mum
Name: The Mongrels
Known for: Legacy organisation who murder members who try to leave
The Mongrels are one of the oldest gangs in Cape Town and one of the most vicious.
They've been locked in gang warfare terrorising the Flats for decades — and the bloodshed continues, along with the sale of drugs.
Recent years have seen many people severely injured or even killed in the Mongrels turf battles.
In 2017, three Mongrels members were arrested after they crashed their car while fleeing from an attempted murder — they'd shot a rival in the head.
And just two years before that, a former Mongrels hitman was shot dead as he got out of a taxi because he'd defected to a rival gang.
Shocking reports have previously suggested the gang has members as young as 12, and has issued orders to cut off victims' faces and send them to their mothers.
It seems gangs in Cape Town have the ability to destroy the lives of children, even those who don't have anything to do with gangs.
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Ashwin Jonas was just 12 when he was shot by gangsters "until their guns were empty," reports.
It's believed the boy's slaying was part of a gangland initiation ceremony.
His aunt, Friede Rudolph, who was with him when the ambulance carried him away, said: "The bullets just fell out of him, there were so many."
