Hardly a weekend goes by without at least one person shot in a gang-related attack in Port Elizabeth’s northern areas. It is now at the point where rival gangs are not only killing each other – families are targeted, from grandparents to young children.

The violence, which this newspaper has reported on extensively, almost always stems from a fight over territory and the illicit drug trade. With a youth unemployment rate of about 48% in Nelson Mandela Bay, it is hardly surprising that the young people in our city fall prey to the snares of gangs...