SOUTH AFRICAN VIGILANTES COUNTER GANGSTERS AND DRUGS WITH VIOLENCE

Police, Civic Groups Decry Desperate Resort To Rough Justice

CAPE TOWN, South Africa Rashaad Staggie, head of a gang called the Hard
Living Kids, met an even harder death.

A dealer in violence and drugs, he was given rough justice by a vigilante
group that has taken the law into its own hands for the past year because
members feel the police are ineffective.

The vigilantes circled Staggie's house in Cape Flats, one of the most
crimeridden areas in the country, to stop his drug dealing.

Staggie was not there that night in August 1996, but when he heard of the
demonstration he headed home, full of bravado. It was a fatal mistake. The
vigilantes dragged him from his vehicle, shot him, doused him with gasoline
and burned him.

Staggie's death has been widely attributed to an organization called People
Against Gangsterism And Drugs. The group has never officially acknowledged
responsibility, although Staggie's killing occurred during one of its marches.

"It happened on the spur of the moment," said Ebrahim Francis, one of
PAGAD's founders and a member of its working committee. "What happened that
day is a reflection of the frustration of the community. We are realizing
that people are prepared to go to any lengths to eradicate this problem."

Since the group was formed last year, it claims to have marched on the
homes of more than 70 local drug dealers to give them an ultimatum: Stop
dealing or face the consequences.

The consequences are never spelled out, but several times shots have been
fired into houses, and dealers have been manhandled.

PAGAD, a largely Muslim organization, attracts support from many
increasingly outraged and fearful residents of Cape Flats, an expanse of
blighted townships on the wrong side of Table Mountain that is home mainly
to blacks and people of mixed race.

But PAGAD also faces opposition from police and civic groups who denounce
its use of violence.

"If you look at PAGAD, its founding ideals and its constitution, it is a
very honorable and noble organization in terms of wanting to rid society of
gangsterism and drugs," said David Frost, spokesman for the police in
Western Cape. "I don't think any law abiding country in the world would
have a problem with that.

"But what has happened is they have taken the law into their own hands."

Violence in Cape Flats has actually increased since PAGAD's creation, said
Frost, partly due to the organization's attacks on gangsters and drug
dealers, and partly due to reprisals against PAGAD members. But, he added,
the overt sales of drugs in the area appeared to have decreased.

"They have perhaps just driven them underground," said Frost. "Obviously
they have come into conflict with the police. The police can't allow them
to take the law into their own hands. But it's a very difficult situation
for the police. If you act against them you are no good. And if you don't
act against them you are no good."

Last weekend, after police objections, PAGAD canceled a mass march on Cape
Town's Sea Point, an upscale drug center. But it sent hundreds of
placardcarrying Muslim women in small, legal pickets of less than 15 into
the area to deliver its antidrug message. There were no arrests and no
violence.

For the past five weeks, Craig Arendse, chief mediator at the University of
Cape Town's Center of Conflict Resolution, has been facilitating talks
between PAGAD and the police, trying to persuade PAGAD to work within the law.

He credited the organization with being "very effective" in increasing
public pressure for stronger police action. But, he said, while PAGAD's
objectives had popular support in the Cape Flats community, its use of
violence did not.

"PAGAD loses a lot of support from a lot of ordinary communitybased people
because of the perception that it uses violent and forceful means to
achieve its ends," he said. "The challenge is how do we channel these
people's energies creatively and constructively."

It took the involvement of a respected religious leader's son in a
particularly gruesome gangrelated murder to convince PAGAD's founders that
they were in a fight for communal survival.

"Many things happened after that that made us realize if nothing is done
about the scourge of gangsters and guns, then we are doomed," said PAGAD's
Francis.

"You don't know what it means to have lived in a community where they rape
your daughter, and the day the accused man appears in court and you are
supposed to be a witness, you never turn up. You wouldn't dare to.

"Where they kill your son in front of you and the day you must appear in
court, you never turn up. That's been going on and on.

"We have been living in a circle of fear, and for you to break that fear is
to tell those who are terrorizing you that `The community is not afraid of
you any more and you have to be afraid of the community.'

"What makes us different, in a sense, is we have taken this problem on with
the understanding that what we are facing are armed gangsters, and we know
better than anyone outside this community exactly to what extremes they
will resort. You have got to be prepared for them. You have got to meet
them on their own level."

This is a violent country. During the first six months of this year, guns
were used to murder 5,127 people, to attempt to murder another 10,000 and
to rob 25,783. And Cape Flats is among the most violent of areas.

It is the territory of literally dozens of gangs with names like The
Americans, The Flower Gang, The Sisco Yakkies and The Sexy Boys, whose
ruthlessness holds the local population hostage.

"These gangsters seemed to have taken over the minds of the community,"
said Francis. "They were driving in the townships in flashy cars, throwing
out [bank] notes to the kids."

President Nelson Mandela last month toured Cape Flats and promised a
steppedup fight against the gangs. A series of joint policearmy raids
have since been launched. In the latest on Nov. 11, five alleged gangsters
were arrested and a quantity of small arms and ammunition seized. But even
as Tuesday's raid was being carried out, three Cape Flats homes were
attacked in the continuing gangland battle.

A survey by Market Research Africa, published last week by the newspaper
Business Day, reported that 74 percent of urban black adults in South
Africa were aware of neighborhood gangs and 65 percent lived in fear of
attack.

"The extraordinary high levels of expectation of gang attacks reflects a
pessimistic view of society's future and the government's ability to
provide safe living for its citizens," said Brian Culross, director of the
survey company.

The survey also showed that most citizens favored arming neighborhoodwatch
patrols but only for selfdefense.

Francis, 39, a small, unassuming man, goes nowhere without a 9 mm pistol
since receiving death threats against himself and his family. Other PAGAD
demonstrators, he said, were also "sometimes armed," adding: "That's only
because they know what they are facing.

"We are not playing games. We are saying we are prepared to offer our lives
for the cause. The only time it is going to stop is when we see an end to
gangsterism. Lots of people are going to die, the innocent in between,
unfortunately. But the community is fed up with this scourge."

"If no one else is going to do anything about it, we will use any means
necessary to bring change. We regard it as legitimate force. What we are
fighting that is the reason for the intervention of force."

So does PAGAD deliver instant justice?

"Whatever evolves I am not saying what it is if this person has been
given a warning and doesn't take leave of this community, then whatever
happens to him is his responsibility," said Francis.