Community Safety

The administration of justice which includes the prosecution and or conviction of all crimes, including all gang related crimes, are governed by Chapter 8 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. This is a competence of the National Department of Justice, Constitutional Development and Correctional Services who informed me as follows when I enquired about the convictions rates for gang related crimes.

(a)- (d)  As you are aware if an offence has been committed, the accused is arrested and charged with specific crime that was allegedly committed. There is however no charge such as “gang related crime”. Gangs are involved in various activities and crimes committed by them could involve various charges such as Murder, Attempted Murder, Assault, Assault GBH, Drug Trafficking, Extortion, Corruption, Money Laundering, Racketeering, Illegal Possession of Fire-arm, Rape and Intimidation to name but a few.

The departmental system on which the case information is recorded, captures the specific charge and accused particulars and does not indicate per se whether the charge or the accused is indeed gang-related.

Taking the above into consideration, it is extremely difficult and if not at all impossible for this office to establish what offences are referred to when statistics pertaining to “gang related crimes” convictions is requested.