Origins
PAGAD was originally initiated by a handful of neighbourhood watch members from a few coloured Cape Town townships who decided to organize public demonstrations to pressure the government to fight the illegal drug trade and gangsterism more effectively. However, PAGAD increasingly took matters into their own hands, believing the police were not taking enough action against gangs. 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.
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. PAGAD's campaign came to prominence in 1996 when a local gang leader, Rashaad Staggie, was beaten and burnt to death by a mob during a march to his home in Salt River. 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.
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.
Read more about this topic: People Against Gangsterism And Drugs
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