Editing People Against Gangsterism and Drugs

{{Short description|Violent South African vigilante group}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2020}}
{{Infobox organization
|name         = People Against Gangsterism and Drugs
|image        = PAGAD_logo_2014.jpg
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|type         = Vigilante group
|status       = Active
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|location     = [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]]
|region_served = [[Africa]]
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|website      = {{URL|www.pagad.co.za/}}
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'''People Against Gangsterism and Drugs''' ('''PAGAD''') is a group formed in 1996 in the [[Cape Flats]] area of [[Cape Town]], [[South Africa]]. The organisation came to prominence for acts against gangsters, including arson and murder.

==Origins==
PAGAD was founded by a handful of [[Pan Africanist Congress of Azania]] (PAC) and community members from a Cape Town townships who decided to organize public demonstrations to pressure the government to fight the illegal drug trade and gangsterism more effectively.<ref name="AfricanAffairs">{{cite web | url=http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/08/16/afraf.adr046.abstract | archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415140528/http://afraf.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2011/08/16/afraf.adr046.abstract | url-status=dead | archive-date=15 April 2013 | title=The politics of mobilization for security in South African townships | publisher=African Affairs | work=volume 110, issue 441 | year=2011 | access-date=6 August 2012 | author=Fourchard, L. | pages=607–627}}</ref>{{rp|11}}<ref name="CSVR2001">{{cite web | url=http://www.csvr.org.za/archive/docs/gangs/gangspagadstate.pdf | title=Gangs, Pagad & the State: Vigilantism and Revenge Violence in the Western Cape | publisher=Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation | date=May 2001 | access-date=23 April 2014 | author1=Dixon, Bill | author2=Johns, Lisa-Marie | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150219213902/http://www.csvr.org.za/archive/docs/gangs/gangspagadstate.pdf | archive-date=19 February 2015}}</ref> However, PAGAD increasingly took matters into their own hands, believing the police were not taking enough action against gangs.<ref name=bbc-2000-09-13/> Initially the community and police were hesitant to act against PAGAD activities, recognising the need for community action against crime in the gang-ridden communities of the Cape Flats.<ref name="CSVR2001" /><ref name=bbc-2000-09-13>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/923701.stm|title=Pagad: Vigilantes or terrorists?|work=BBC News|date=13 September 2000}}</ref>

Notorious gangsters were initially asked by PAGAD members to stop their criminal activities or be subject to "popular justice". A common PAGAD [[modus operandi]] was to set fire to drug dealers' houses and kill gangsters.<ref name="AfricanAffairs"/> PAGAD's campaign came to prominence in 1996 when the leader of the [[Hard Livings (gang)|Hard Livings]] gang, [[Rashied Staggie|Rashaad Staggie]], was beaten and burnt to death by a mob during a march to his home in [[Salt River, Cape Town|Salt River]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Drogin|first1=Bob|title=Anti-Gang Fury Roils S. Africa|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1996-08-13-mn-33888-story.html|access-date=8 February 2017|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=13 August 1996}}</ref> South Africa's police quickly came to regard PAGAD as part of the problem rather than a partner in the fight against crime, and they were eventually designated a terrorist organization by the South African government.<ref name="CSVR2001" /><ref name=bbc-2000-09-13 />{{rp|11}}

Changes within the organisation following the incidents of 1996 increased the influence of more highly politicised and organisationally experienced people within it associated with [[radical Islamic]] groups such as [[Qibla (group)|Qibla]]. This caused a series of changes such as the emergence of new leadership and the development of tighter organisational structures. This succeeded in transforming PAGAD from a relatively non-religious popular mass movement into a smaller, better organised but also a religiously radical isolated group.<ref name="CSVR2001" />

The threat of growing vigilantism in 2000 led the Western Cape provincial government to declare a "war on gangs" that became a key priority of the ANC provincial government at the time.<ref name="AfricanAffairs"/>{{rp|11}}

==Cape Town bombings==
{{See also|Planet Hollywood bombing}}
Although PAGAD's leadership denied involvement, PAGAD's G-Force, operating in small [[Clandestine cell system|cell]]s, was believed responsible for killing a large number of gang leaders, and also for a bout of urban [[terrorism]]—particularly bombings—in Cape Town. The bombings started in 1998, and included nine bombings in 2000. In addition to targeting gang leaders, bombing targets included South African authorities, [[synagogue]]s, [[homosexuality|gay]] [[nightclub]]s, tourist attractions, and Western-associated restaurants.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History of terror events in democratic SA |url=https://www.businesslive.co.za/rdm/politics/2016-07-11-history-of-terror-events-in-democratic-sa/ |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=BusinessLIVE |language=en-ZA}}</ref> The most prominent attack during this time was the bombing on 25 August 1998 of the Cape Town [[Planet Hollywood]] which resulted in two deaths and 26 injuries.<ref name=bbc-2000-09-13 />

In September 2000, magistrate Pieter Theron, who was presiding in a case involving PAGAD members, was murdered in a [[drive-by shooting]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/917031.stm|title=Cape Town bomb 'link' to killing|date=9 September 2000|work=BBC News}}</ref>

PAGAD's leaders have become known for making [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] statements. A 1997 incendiary bomb attack on a [[Jew]]ish bookshop owner was found by police to have been committed with the same material PAGAD has used in other attacks.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw97-8/south-africa.html|title=Antisemitism And Racism: South Africa|publisher=Stephen Roth Institute|year=1998|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070804053901/http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw97-8/south-africa.html|archive-date=4 August 2007}}</ref> In 1998, [[Ebrahim Moosa]], a University of Cape Town academic who had been critical of PAGAD, decided to take a post in the United States after his home was bombed.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw98-9/sthaf.htm |title=Stephen Roth Institute: Antisemitism and Racism |access-date=2012-10-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121119112621/http://www.tau.ac.il/Anti-Semitism/asw98-9/sthaf.htm |archive-date=19 November 2012}}</ref>

Violent acts such as bombings in Cape Town subsided in 2002, and the police have not attributed any such acts to PAGAD since the November 2002 bombing of the [[Bishop Lavis]] offices of the Serious Crimes Unit in the [[Western Cape]]. In 2002, PAGAD leader [[Abdus Salaam Ebrahim]] was convicted of public violence and imprisoned for seven years. Although a number of other PAGAD members were arrested and convicted of related crimes, none were convicted of the Cape Town bombings.

==Current activities==
[[File:PAGAD poster 2014.JPG|thumb|A poster put-up by PAGAD advertising a public event celebrating [[Eid al-Fitr|Eid]] in 2014.]]
Today, PAGAD maintains a small and less visible presence in the Cape Town [[Cape Muslim]] community.

In the run up to the [[South African general election, 2014|2014 South African general elections]] the organisation hosted motorcades and marches in [[Mitchell's Plain]] in February–March 2014. One of PAGAD's largest marches in 2014 was joined by the [[Economic Freedom Fighters|EFF]], a far left political party who expressed their support for the organisation.<ref name="IOLmarch2014">{{cite web | url=http://www.iol.co.za/news/crime-courts/eff-joins-pagad-on-anti-drugs-march-1.1670748#.U01ENfmSySo | title=EFF joins Pagad on anti-drugs march | publisher=Cape Argus | date=3 April 2014 | access-date=15 April 2014 |author1=Natasha Bezuidenhout |author2=Warren Fortune |name-list-style=amp }}</ref><ref name="PPincreasing">{{cite web | url=http://www.peoplespost.co.za/MM/edition/138047/edition-article-details/pagad-support- | title=PAGAD SUPPORT 'INCREASING' IN MITCHELL'S PLAIN | publisher=People's Post | date=11 April 2014 | access-date=15 April 2014 | author=Majiet, Laila}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Merwe|first=Marelise Van Der|date=2015-08-03|title=Pagad & The Gangs: Cape Town's streets of fire|url=https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2015-08-03-pagad-the-gangs-cape-towns-streets-of-fire/|access-date=2020-11-09|website=Daily Maverick|language=en}}</ref> In 2022, a PAGAD G-Force leader was charged with conspiracy to kill police officers.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Pagad G-Force leader charged with conspiracy to kill magistrate, cop involved in his sons’ criminal case |url=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/pagad-g-force-leader-charged-with-conspiracy-to-kill-magistrate-cop-involved-in-his-sons-criminal-case-cfb83c47-f076-4410-8c42-4ab9b0b9a6ae}}</ref> In 2023 a former PAGAD leader was gunned down.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Buhr |first=Shona |date=2023-02-13 |title=Former Pagad leader in Eldos ambushed next to his house |url=https://sundayworld.co.za/news/former-pagad-leader-in-eldos-ambushed-next-to-his-house/ |access-date=2023-05-29 |website=Sunday World |language=en-ZA}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*Shaw, Mark (2023). ''[https://www.wordsworth.co.za/products/breaking-the-bombers-trade-paperback Breaking the Bombers - how the hunt for Pagad created a crack police unit],'' Publisher: [[Jonathan Ball Publishers|Jonathan Ball]], {{ISBN|978-1-77619-151-2}}. Book on the history of Pagad and its impact on the criminal environment in Cape Town.
==External links==
{{Portal|South Africa|Islam}}
*[http://www.pagad.co.za/ People Against Gangsterism and Drugs]
*[http://www.csvr.org.za/archive/index.php/publications/1804-gangs-pagad-and-the-state-vigilantism-and-revenge-violence-in-the-western-cape.html Gangs, Pagad & the State: Vigilantism and Revenge Violence in the Western Cape] - Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, 2001
*[http://www.cdi.org/friendlyversion/printversion.cfm?documentID=3211 People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (PAGAD)], Center for Defense Information

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{{DEFAULTSORT:People Against Gangsterism And Drugs}}
[[Category:Far-right politics in South Africa]]
[[Category:Rebel groups in South Africa]]
[[Category:Vigilantes]]
[[Category:1996 establishments in South Africa]]
[[Category:Islam in South Africa]]
[[Category:Crime in Cape Town]]
[[Category:Antisemitism in South Africa]]
[[Category:20th-century attacks on Jewish institutions]]
[[Category:Terrorism in South Africa]]