Cape Talk, Thursday evening

Stanfield's on trial at the moment, and he's reputed to be one of the big gang bosses. But an interesting point that you make in the report is that it's not much good putting a gang leader in jail if the gang leader can still control the gang from inside the jail. Yes, well, I believe you're talking about the Ralph Stanfield case. Yeah, Ralph Stanfield. I beg your pardon, yeah. Yes, that's correct. So, one of the key findings.

In this current gang monitor, is that, and this has been reiterated by the Correctional Services Commissioner, who said that we essentially alluded to the fact that correctional facilities are becoming operational hubs for organized crime. And in the case of key gang leaders, we are seeing that they still have significant influence, even though they are behind bars. And a lot of that is due to the fact that telephones are smuggled into pillars.

And that is allowing them to contact their broader network on the outside, which in turn can still carry out the operations on order from the gang leader himself. So that's something that correctional services and saps between them need to get on top of. I mean, if you are going to cut the head off the snake and render the snake less or completely non-toxic anymore, then you've actually got to cut off the head of the snake, not literally, metaphorically. And another thing covered in the report.

Which does match what we hear from our listeners, Brandon, is the spread of gangs into rural areas where historically they weren't nearly as active as they seem to be now at Atlantis, Gradarsdorp, and there any other number of small towns in the Western Cape where this is becoming an issue. So, John, I think it's important to note that the spread of gang influence and activity to outlying areas is not necessarily a new phenomenon. So, in the early 2000s,

We had the likes of Ernie Lusta Solomon and the terrible Johnston who took over turf in the Elberg region. And that includes Horsen, for example, where they took over abalone poaching operations. That poached abalone was in turn traded with Chinese organized cobinal groups for precursor chemicals used to manufacture methamphetamine and manda. Right? So it's not a new phenomenon. But more recently, we are seeing gang expansion into smaller towns.

Driven by different dynamics. So, for example, gang members themselves have fighted that competition over illicit markets, so the drug trade and the extortion markets in the Cape Flats in particular, in the urban hubs, it's so competitive. And this is in turn pushing some of them out to take advantage of markets where there's less competition in the rural areas. And Marmosbury is one of those areas. Brendan, thank you very much indeed.

Is a comprehensive report and we've barely scratched the surface of it. Brandon Davis, an analyst at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. In the last 24 hours, what's happened in your world? Several meetings have been held and more are planned to address taxi conflict in parts of the Western Cape. The conflict between Qatar and Codeta is linked to a dispute over a route linking Delft, Langa, and Epping.