Pretoria does not appear on Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi’s official list of major gang hotspots, but according to experts, this does not mean the capital is free of the province’s organised crime crisis.

Established street gangs in parts of Johannesburg and the Western Cape are often characterised by territorial control.

But according to Mike Bolhuis, the owner of Specialised Security Services, crime networks in Pretoria increasingly functions around profitable crimes such as drug dealing, theft of infrastructure, tender corruption, blackmail and violence.

Bolhuis commented on numbers that Lesufi announced on July 14, which indicate that 258 people in Gauteng were murdered in gang-related violence in the past four years.

He said the distinction between traditional street gangs and organised crime networks is important, especially against the background of new statistics showing that gang violence is increasing.

According to Lesufi’s answer to written questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, the province recorded 678 violent crimes in total between 2022/23 and 2025/26, which were linked to gang violence.

This includes 258 murders, 408 attempted murder and 12 assaults.

The police recorded 979 cases related with gang violence during the same period.

The most calamitious period of gang violence was 2023/24, when 83 gang-related murders and 165 attempted murder cases were recorded in Gauteng.

The official gang hotspots that were identified by the Gauteng government, are mainly situated in Johannesburg and surrounding areas.

According to Bolhuis, the fact that Pretoria does not appear on the premier’s list of gang violence hotspots, it does not mean that the capital’s crime issue is not less serious.

Rather, the nature of the threat varies.

“Pretoria is definitely affected by organised crime, but the nature varies often from the so-called territorial street gangs found in parts of Johannesburg and the Western Cape,” Bolhuis believes.

“These groups are often involved with drug dealing, carjackings, cable theft, financial crime, illegal mining, blackmail and kidnappings for ransom. Therefore, Pretoria is not necessarily classified as a traditional gang hotspot, even though the organised crime threat is serious,” he explained.

Bolhuis said Pretoria and Johannesburg have similar challenges, but organised crime in the Tshwane metro region are mainly driven through syndicates involved with municipal tender corruption, theft of essential infrastructure, drug dealing and violent blackmail.

According to him, criminal networks have also penetrated government structures and law enforcement.

Where traditional street gangs are often associated with a specific neighbourhood, territory and visible control, organised crime networks, according to him, are “more widespread, flexible and less visible”.

Bolhuis said different forms of organised crime are found in different parts of the Tshwane metro.

Mamelodi, Soshanguve, Atteridgeville, Hammanskraal and parts of the city centre are mostly associated with drug dealing, violent crime and ganglike groups.

The Pretoria central business and industrial districts often experience frequent vehicle crimes, robbery and organised economic crime.

High population density, joblessness, limited economic opportunities, easy access to transport routes and the availability of illegal markets create circumstances wherein crime networks can flourish, he reckons.

However, the distinction between gangs and syndicates makes little difference to residents when the result is the same: violence, fear, drugs, blackmail and a loss of confidence in the state.

The Gauteng statistics show that the province’s gang problem is already deeply rooted. Over the past four years, police throughout Gauteng made 641 gang-related arrests and confiscated 189 illegal firearms.

The number of firearms that were confiscated, increased from 14 in 2022/23 to 77 in 2025/26.

This indicates a growing availability of firearms under criminal groups and the increasing danger of what communities are dealing with.

According to the Gauteng government, children and young people in the identified gang hotspots are particularly vulnerable to recruitment.

Bolhuis said the same risk under the youth exist in other high risk areas such as Pretoria – even where crime is not officially classified as gang violence.

He pointed out that recruitment often begin through friendships and social networks. Young people are lured, according to him, through promises of money, status, protection or even free drugs.

They can be initially used as lookouts, drug mules or transporters of stolen goods before they are pulled into more serious crime.

The question now is whether the Lesufi government’s response keeps pace with the nature of the threat.

The Gauteng government only allocated R3.822-million to the Anti-Gang Violence unit within the Visible Policing Unit’s budget for the 2025/26 financial year.

According to DA member of the Provincial Council who are responsible for safety, Michael Sun, it is more worrying that there are no dedicated budget for anti-gang investigations.

“The problem is that organised crime cannot necessarily be stopped by mere visible policing,” Sun believes.

Sun said the DA has in the meantime asked Gauteng provincial police commissioner, Tommy Mthombeni, to urgently intervene and to ensure that specialised SAPS units are deployed to investigate, dismantle and bring criminal gangs to justice.

He believes key role players should be prosecuted more quickly, while witnesses and informants need to be better protected.

“Gang violence cannot be addressed through promises or reactive policing,” he emphasised.

“Through our LCS approach – Loot, Convict and Secure – we will arrest gang members, convict them and clean up our neighbourhoods. We will also intensify efforts to eliminate firearms, and implement community outreach programmes to steer young people away from gangs.”

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