Africans have lost the values that helped our ancestors stay together as one. Now people put themselves first and everyone and everything comes last as a result. Crime rules and governs everyone’s democracy. Some people say that poverty and high unemployment rates are the reason for the high crime rate. That is an old proverb and saying of the past. Nowadays, drugs, fashion, and fame are the reason why people break the law. Many people in my community have one thing in common, either they are victims of crime or they were once law offenders.

A gang is a group of people who work collectively to break the law. Gangs in Langa rule the entire population, there are always eager to mug people night and day as they walk in big groups, and are fearless. Their laws are indefinable. In mathematics we say 1+1=2, gangsters don’t have to go by any rules and are not afraid to kill you if that is what it takes. They rule day and night, they even set the time that a person must be inside their home. If you are out at night you must be sure to have money or a cell phone for them to take. If you don’t have any valuable material you will be bitten and stabbed. If you survive, you would be very lucky because the there is not one hospital in our vicinity.

Community members and the police respond negatively to criminals. If a criminal has been caught, the police normally do not attend to the situation until after a death has taken place. Many teenagers die at the hands of their community members. Because the community has no faith in the police and think they just arrest a person one day and release them the next. The community method of justice is also not effective, we cannot just beat up the criminals until they die. Every community newspaper shows serious crimes daily. Most gang members support their drug habit with the blood money or money they robbed while politicians talk about how the country should be governed. High crime rates and the community itself breaks the law by taking justice into their own hands. Langa is a big township and the police cannot be everywhere to help people.