Whitaker Peace & Development Initiative

The second largest economy in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is nevertheless marked by significant rates of poverty and unemployment and is ranked among the top 10 countries in the world for income inequality.

Decades after the apartheid era, many South Africans view social exclusion and violence as an enduring obstacle to their country’s success, in particular in Cape Town, estimated to be the 11th most violent city in the world – and the most violent outside of Latin America. Worryingly, murder rates have risen by 60 percent in Cape Town over the last decade, despite South Africa having seen a 50 percent reduction in violent deaths since the end of apartheid. Crime in Cape Town is particularly high in the Cape Flats, a gang-dominated place that has been locked in cycles of poverty and violence inherited from apartheid. Young people in particular face such high levels of unemployment, that they often have no choice but to join a gang as child soldiers for economic gain as well as social status.