Cape Town is two cities. One is beautiful beyond imagining, known since its beginning as the 'fairest cape' in the world. Here tourists come to lounge on beaches, scale misty peaks and dine in fine restaurants.

The other is one of the most dangerous cities in the world, where police need bullet-proof vests and sometimes army backup. Here gangs of young men rule the night with heavy calibre handguns, dispensing heroin, cocaine, crystal meth and fear.

This is a story of the second city...

In Gang Town, investigative journalist and criminologist Don Pinnock draws on more than thirty years of research to provide a nuanced and definitive portrait of youngsters caught up in violent crime.

About the author

Don Pinnock, former editor of Getaway magazine, is also a criminologist who co-drafted the Youth Justice White Paper for the ANC government. He is among South Africa’s top experts on gangsterism and wrote the seminal book on the topic called The Brotherhoods: Street Gangs and State Control, Gangs, Rituals and Rites of Passage​, which caused quite a stir when it was published in 1984. Pinnock is a specialist in adolescent deviance and founder of Usiko, a rehabilitation organisation for high-risk youths.

 

Gang Town is published by Tafelberg