Using social network analysis to understand the interactions of a Cape Town gang

Social network analysis is a sophisticated method of analysing interactions between various actors. In this paper, it is used to understand the dynamics of a Cape Town gang.

This case study uses social network analysis to study the interactions of a criminal network operating in a township outside Cape Town. Data was gathered from a court judgment following the trial. Code names are used throughout the study as many of those involved in the trial are appealing their sentences. 

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 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 research consultant, who has studied economic crime in Africa since 2001. A former prosecutor and law lecturer, Charles led the research on crime networks in Cape Town, as part of a project on the impact of organised crime on governance in Cape Town and Dakar.