Caught in the crossfire: The victims of Cape Town's gang warfare | BBC News

In just three months last year, police reported 263 gang murders in South Africa's Western Cape.

A team led by a local church pastor is trying to stop the violence.

This is Cape Town, one of the wealthiest cities in Africa.

But it's also one of the most unequal and divided cities, and is the country's gang capital.

Violence is largely concentrated in a series of townships known as the Cape Flats.

In Hannover Park, a neighborhood of just 50,000 people, shootings and stabbings occur almost daily.

Nando Johnson is a shooter in a gang called the Mongrels, but he's had enough.

What kind of robbery or attempt or what did you do?

The pastor's team is offering them a way out.

Nando and Bradley joined the mongrel gang as youngsters.

We could almost say they're born into the mongrel gang because, you know, our family was already involved.

We zoom in where the need is needed most.

We negotiate gang conflicts among different gangs and look at which members would like to make an exit or change their behavior, change their life.

So we're gonna see if these guys are serious about changing their life.

The one recently came out of prison.

We're gonna see how it goes.

Hey, you good?

Hey, my brother.

He's not mine, man.

What?

What?

We weren't all there.

He was sitting right there with his golden tongue.

We had a fight and we were out.

But now you're here with his tongue.

All right?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

All right.

All right.

All right.

All right.

All right.

He'll join a six to twelve week program of rehabilitation run by the pastor and funded by charitable donations.

Fifteen kilometers east of Anova Park, in West Bank Township, a family is grieving the loss of their child.

He was a bullet hole.

And he was sleeping here.

And then here, he was in his back, with his back caught.

The toes.

In February, their four-year-old son, Davin, was killed when a series of bullets were fired into their home.

We used to sit here in the morning and we watched them play from close to close, but never passed the closest.

And now she's sitting here alone outside.

She asked me, where's my brother?

So I told her, no, he's by Jesus.

In Daddy's heart and in my heart, I said, yeah, Baba, it is over here.

Two years ago, his 12-year-old sister, Kelly Amber, was also killed in crossfire.

I wrote to you.

I felt like I was going to die.

I said, please don't come back.

I walked out.

I thought to myself, I'm not going to stand in front of you again.

But I wrote to you.

We got out of the car.

The one on the road is also a doctor.

She went to the doctor.

I can still remember saying to you...

The police say they've increased deployments across the Cape Flats, but families continue to live in fear.

This is the church and community centre where the pastor and his team are based.

And Nova Park doesn't really have an economy as to speak of.

The bulk of the economy comes out of the drug culture.

That's the biggest economy.

Our whole aim is to reduce the violence within the community so that people can be safer.

Kids can walk safely to school and children can play outside.

And also get gangs to talk to one another.

The team is trying to negotiate a temporary ceasefire between two warring factions, the Ghetto Kids and the OTFs.

The gang boss they want to speak to, whose word counts on the streets, is in prison.

To hear if they knew about the ceasefire that was going on in the corridors here, in the backstreets, in between Cabotown and the jungle, in the ATFs and the kettles.

I told them the other day, I'm a man, if I want things to happen, they always do.

And Pastor knows me, if I'm someone, if I come to the fire and then counter, I see Pastor, and the gunfire still goes on.

And the right position, people at the table, to get that thing to a proper ceasefire, man.

The pastor's team is trying to hold the temporary ceasefire in place.

The situation is a little bit tense because they're walking on each other's grounds.

The OTF gang wants to meet and talk.

I used to be a lady, you know.

I tried my best to be a man.

Former gang members, Glenn and Abi, are sent to negotiate.

Seas fire.

Seas fire.

Seas fire.

Seas fire.

Seas fire.

Seas fire.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

I don't want to play anymore.

But peace rarely lasts more than a few days in Anova Park.

That night, two people are killed in a drive-by shooting.

A young woman is injured in the crossfire.

Two days later, a gunman is seen firing off a series of rounds.

Nobody's going to come from anywhere to help save us, not from overseas, not from our local government.

Nobody's going to come with a magic wand to cure the Cape Flats.

Nando has arrived at the rehab.

It's a huge step for a young man who has only ever known gang life.

We've got various ways to sort of alter behaviors, you know.

The first thing we need to do is to get you to feel the pain and the hurt of your family, your community, and even those around you.

Because if you can't feel pain and have no empathy with other people, there's nothing we can do for you.

What substance?

Taka.

Taka.

What's the key role in your gangs?

You must put your name and sign here.

Nando Johnson, eh?

This must now be a second chance for you.

It's now a new beginning.

Yeah.

A fresh start.

A fresh start, yeah.

But there must now be people who have passed by, people who have done things that give you a second chance.

How do you feel about that?

My own brother-in-law was shot in this gang violence.

I didn't stop doing this work.

People close to me have died in this gang violence.

I didn't stop doing this work.

Nando, if I think about you, I want to hear about you.

What is your plan?

I want to be a good man for my children.

And I want to go work.

And yes, I just want to fix myself where I can enjoy.

Everybody understand that community there, it's difficult to change and to get out there.

It's quite difficult, you know?

So his decision, I don't take it lightly.

I take it as a very bold decision.

But Nando, I'm very impressed.

Awesome, awesome, awesome.

That's amazing.