A network of violence: Mapping a criminal gang network in Cape Town

This paper focuses on a gang operating in Cape Town to identify and analyse the structures, actors and interactions that make up a criminal network.

This study presents and discusses the characteristics of the structure, actors involved and types of interactions of a criminal network formed by a gang operating in Cape Town, South Africa. The analysis is based on data gathered from a case judgment in the Western Cape High Court. The accused group were on trial for a number of crimes, including murder, assault, theft, and malicious damage to property, and were also indicted in terms of the Prevention of Organised Crime Act, which criminalises membership of a criminal organisation. This information was processed and analysed by applying specific social network analysis protocols, among other methods.

About the authors

Khalil Goga is a researcher in the ISS Transnational Threats and International Crime Division. He has been researching organised crime in Africa since 2009 and has been affiliated with the ISS since 2012. He previously lectured at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, from where he received both his undergraduate and master’s degrees.

Eduardo Salcedo-Albaran has a master’s degree in political science. As director of Scientific Vortex Inc. he collaborates with institutes and universities worldwide researching the structure of transnational criminal networks that participate in corruption, drug trafficking and state capture. He is also part of the EDGE Foundation, which gathers together thinkers who are at the center of today’s intellectual, technological, and scientific landscape’.

Charles Goredema is a senior research consultant with more than 20 years’ experience of criminal justice systems in Southern Africa. A lawyer by training, he has conducted and published detailed research work into organised crime and money laundering in Southern and East Africa with the ISS for over 14 years.