Community Safety:

a) Since the implementation of the programme:

• Ceasefire has undertaken direct mediation between opposing gang factions before, during and after gang violence incidents in an attempt to halt the spread of violence and possible acts of retaliation which invariably resulted in injuries and deaths of young males who were mostly affiliated to these gangs. Innocent bystanders are often also caught in the crossfire. The Ceasefire team undertook 747 conflict mediations over the 2016/17 period which is more than one conflict mediation per day and were often on the scene of incident of gang violence before SAPS and Metro Police . It needs to be noted that this team of Ceasefire community members regularly put their lives at risk in an attempt to prevent the spread of violence by undertaking these conflict mediations within the Hanover Park environment where 1651 shooting incidents occurred in Hanover Park also during 2016/17 with 6210 shots being fired. This is approximately 10 gunshots per day for that period.

 

• During the set-up phase of the Ceasefire Programme a 4 month outreach and rehabilitation programme was devised for High Risk Individuals (known active gang members) and Youth at Risk through a process of engagement with a cross section of High Risk and Youth at Risk. To date 2730 high risk individuals were assisted with a view to eventually exiting the gangs. During the 2016/17 period approximately 1090 high risk individuals and were enrolled in a variety of different outreach programmes making up the 4 month outreach and rehabilitation programme, delivered by the Ceasefire programme. The outreach and rehabilitation programme is made up of a combination of behavioural change / rehabilitation elements and general support towards positive employment such as:
  • Substance Abuse 6 weeks in-house program
  • Substance Abuse Programs
  • Behaviour Modification Programs
  • Counselling at Restoration Facilities
  • Anger management programs
  • Assistance with ID’s and learners and drivers licences
  • CV writing
  • Seaman’s courses
  • Carpentry courses
  • Life skills programs
  • Skills development
  • Job readiness programs (reintegration)
  • Links to jobs in the private sector
  • FET applications
  • Music school

b)    Funding was available for the implementation of the Ceasefire programme, in Hanover Park for the contract which expired on 30 September 2017 to the value of R5 078 580 excl. VAT. It should be noted that the average monthly payment by the City of Cape Town to sustain the Ceasefire Programme was approximately R300 000 per month over the duration of the project.

 

c)    The Ceasefire programme is about behaviour change, reducing violence, finding alternatives to violence, rehabilitation and, most importantly, providing choices and opportunities to enable community members to exit the cycle of gangsterism and violence.

 

Historically the approach with respect to the high-risk individuals within communities has been suppression via policing and the criminal justice system. This has been proven to be inadequate and a more comprehensive approach is required with the introduction of community policing and public health / social crime prevention approaches such as the methodology of Ceasefire, including:

·          Violence interruption / mediation (assisting and enabling behaviour change, alternative ways of resolving conflict)

This included direct mediation between opposing factions during and after gang violence incidents in an attempt to halt the spread of violence and possible acts of retaliation which invariably resulted in injuries and deaths of young males who were mostly affiliated to these gangs. Innocent bystanders are often also caught in the crossfire. The Ceasefire team undertook 747 conflict mediations over the 2016/17 period which is more than one conflict mediation per day. It needs to be noted that this team of Ceasefire community members regularly put their lives at risk in an attempt to prevent the spread of violence by undertaking these conflict mediations within the Hanover Park environment where 1651 shooting incidents occurred in Hanover Park during 2016/17 with 6210 shots being fired. This approximately 10 gunshots per day for that period.

·          Outreach work (rehabilitation of high-risk individuals and providing them with opportunities to exit the gang life) During the 2016/17 period approximately 1090 high risk individuals were enrolled in a variety of different outreach programmes delivered by the Ceasefire programme (refer to attached summary from Ceasefire for more detail).

·         Community mobilisation (working in partnership with communities, introducing measures towards the common objective of a reduction of violence and an improvement in community safety)

·          Public education (with respect to approaches, possibilities, realities, community profiling, partnerships, progress, examples to the youth of role models who have changed their ways through this programme)

·          Monitoring and evaluation (constant monitoring of progress, incidents and results, i.e. evidence-based approach) Detailed monthly reports were submitted by Ceasefire to the City of Cape Town which included a wide variety of relevant information which has been extremely valuable in understanding the complex issues facing Hanover Park as well as many other similar communities in the Cape Town Municipal area.

A UCT Department of Psychology student in February 2018 completed and presented a doctoral thesis titled “Life after Ceasefire” which is a one year study on gangsters rehabilitated through the Ceasefire programme. The work engages and evaluates rehabilitated gangsters after 2 years after having been clean and through a series of interviews evaluates from their perspective how the programme can be successfully taken forward. It also engaged the individuals over a one year period and evaluated what it was about the Ceasefire programme that helped them to alter their behaviours and exit gangsterism as well as to stay away from gangsterism in the longer term.

d)   The approval of the Supply Chain Bid Adjudication Committee was for a period up to 30 September 2017, at which time the contract came to an end.  Since the contract ended, the City has discontinued with the funding of the programme at the request of the Mayor, Patricia de Lille. (Please refer to email below for confirmation). The project was not run by Safety and Security but by the Mayor’s Urban Regeneration Programme under the Mayor’s office and later by Area Based oversight. The Safety and Security directorate motivated strongly to continue with the project since it has proved to be successful. The City recently committed to reviewing the project and possibly expanding it to other areas.