WATCH Ceasefire brings Hope to Gang Violence in Cape Town
Although Cape Town is one of the richest cities in Africa, with endless beauty, delicious cuisine and an outdoor lifestyle sought by tourists from around the world – the rate of gang-related murders in the city’s Hanover Park are amongst the highest in the world, and drug use is rampant in townships. But there is hope. An intervention […]
Although Cape Town is one of the richest cities in Africa, with endless beauty, delicious cuisine and an outdoor lifestyle sought by tourists from around the world – the rate of gang-related murders in the city’s Hanover Park are amongst the highest in the world, and drug use is rampant in townships.
But there is hope. An intervention program called Ceasefire Cure Violence, which was launched three years ago as a community project to try and stop the shooting epidemic and help young men exit the gangs, is finding incredible success by getting in the middle of the conflict.
Global news show, Al Jazeera’s AJ+, visited Hanover Park and filmed this gripping 10-minute documentary – War In The Valley of Plenty.
The Ceasefire program has consistently achieved a reduction of between 34 and 52 percent in gang violence, but a turf war broke out between The Mongrels and rival gang The Americans during the making of this documentary.
“Last month there were 30 shots fired,” says Pastor Craven Engel, the Ceasefire program co-ordinator. “The month before that, there were 70 shots fired. This month we’ve got 650 shots fired. The area’s quite tense at the moment. Very tense.”
Ceasefire uses Safety Lab and ShotSpotter applications to mine analytical data to help prevent violence. War In The Valley of Plenty follows two of Ceasefire’s Violence Interrupters, Nielin Peters and Collin Barends, as they help calm the crisis, leading to a rare 16-day ceasefire with no shots fired.
“I used to take from the community and now I want to give back,” says Nielin. “If I know there is trouble brewing between gangs, then I step in to say, ‘There is a better way; let’s talk it out. The only things that comes from shooting are prison or death.’”