By Mike Smith
7th of June 2017
According to our illustrious Police Minister Fikile Mbalula gangsters (and corrupt police officers) are threatening national security
Of course he is speaking of the gangs (and corrupt police officers) mostly in the Cape when he said; “gangs took ownership of communities and this resembled a military coup:”
Even the media is talking about a “Crime Coup” Violent brawl as underworld coups is carried out in Cape Town
Look at what Mbalula said here: “Gangsters come and own communities and they become Minister of social development and give out money to communities in Mitchell's Plain, in surrounding areas...they even have got stands. They call themselves generals."
In military terms, this establishment of a parallel government, is called establishing a “Competitive system of control”.
Lt. Col. David Kilcullen, the world renowned expert on modern insurgencies and counter insurgencies, talks extensively about this in his book, “Out of the Mountains: The Coming Age of the Urban Guerrilla”.
In fact it is the central theme of his book and what he reckons is the key to the success of an insurgency as well as how to fight the insurgency.
Kilcullen is of the opinion, backed up by extensive research and experience, that in the old days people were more rural and therefore you found insurgents in the mountains, jungles and bush, but times are changing fast and people are urbanizing into Littoral Zones (areas by the sea) so insurgencies will be fought there in the future…Cape Town is a perfect example.
Kilcullen also mentions various other examples of the criminal, mafia like theory of competitive control that one sees in all insurgencies, but also in townships and communities all over the world…from the “Dons” in the Jamaican Garrison districts to the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro, to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
That is why Minister Mbalula also mentioned the Favelas where there are no-go areas for the police.
Even the Boers during the Anglo Boer War had a system of “Competitive Control”, establishing their own rules and sanctions, rewards and punishments on the local population.
Kilcullen uses the analogy of the conical fish trap to explain how they do it.
Just like the fishtrap, they make it easy for people to enter, but extremely painful to leave. They might even help the poor in the community, send kids to study further, help old people, build roads and creshes, but they also meet out punishments to anyone breaking their rules. Judgement is normally swift and brutal to make an example of for others and the most harshest punishments are reserved for those who are police or other government informants. Normally anyone in the community who works for the government is a potential informer, so must be dealt with, but if you stick to their rules, you are safe.
However, what is important to notice is that all these groups are always armed. Like Moa said: "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun."
The insurgent group then spends the rest of its time enlarging its area until it takes over FULL control and eventually the state. The success and rate of expansion depends on many factors such as leadership, resources, etc.
Now take into account that about a week ago President (yours not mine) Jacob Zuma went to gang infested Elsies River for an anti crime Imbizo and that it is quite well known that the ANC is plotting with gang bosses
I have mentioned this in several articles such as:
ANC in cahoots with gang bosses and Behind the riots in the townships…is the ANC agenda where I point out how the ANC is using the gangs, rewarding them and turning a blind eye to their operations in order to “make the Western Cape ungovernable” as they call it. What the ANC are doing is establishing a competitive system of control in the townships and coloured areas of the Western Cape together with the gangs and the police in order to take over from the democratically elected DA.
You can also read here how the ANC tries to sell the high crime in the Western Cape as the “New Normal”. Drugs, gangs the new normal in the Western Cape - ANC
In 2015 I wrote a four part miniseries in which I explained exactly what this “crime” in South Africa is…It is an insurgency. To me there is no doubt. It is a classical insurgency and if you want to fight it, you have to see it for what it is and tackle it accordingly.
How to fight the Crime Insurgency in South Africa - Part One – A new look at crime
How to fight the Crime Insurgency in South Africa - Part Two – A closer look at an insurgency
How to fight the Crime Insurgency in South Africa - Part Three - Adopt what is useful; Discard what does not work
How to fight the Crime Insurgency in South Africa - Part Four – Fighting back
Now of course there are two approaches here. You can either fight the crime from the perspective of COIN (Counter Insurgency) or from the perspective of BEING THE INSURGENCY.
See, David Kilcullen explains how a city is a living organism. A city consumes and excretes waste, just like a living organism. It has veins and arteries. It needs food, water and building material in order to survive. A city can get congested…it sleeps and wakes up. A city has traumatic incidents and carries scars and can even lose limbs or digits. A city even chews gum and spits it out occasionally as the elite US Rangers and US Delta Force found out in October 1993 in Mogadishu with their afternoon excursion to capture Mohamed Farrah Aidid. (Black Hawk Down). 19 dead and 73 wounded…It was a tough and humiliating lesson to learn simply, because they did not understand how the city and its inhabitants worked.
But when you do…when you thoroughly understand the anatomy, circadian rhythms and metabolisms of a city…when you study and understand exactly where the mouth and the arsehole of the city are…where the heart, the lungs, the Aorta and the carotid arteries are, where the brains, the eyes and the teeth are…then it does not become too difficult to know how to shut it all down…how to induce a heart attack or kick it in its teeth.
Therefore it becomes imperative that we study our environment and the techniques of these criminal insurgents thoroughly.