CAPE TOWN - Child gangs in Cape Town are becoming a throbbing headache for law enforcement officers.
Pupils as young as 14 are dropping out of school and forming gangs which are later recruited by bigger mobs.
Manenberg residents say they've had enough as the youngsters are causing chaos on the streets.
While police already have their hands full fighting violent crime in areas like Manenberg, they are also increasingly having to deal with school dropouts joining gangs. Some as young as 14. Residents say stone throwing fights by the young gangsters have escalated.
Manenberg is a gang hotpot.
JP Smith, Cape Town Safety and Security MMC said Manenberg has an additional problem which the community has brought to the authorities.
"It is the issue of youth violence. They have the issue of stone throwing which is almost everyday now with large groups of youngsters throwing stones at each other. Other weapons get involved and often this leads to shooting incidents because the street gangs that the youth gangs are affiliated to then get involved and then it ends up in shootings and murders," said Smith.
"There is a whole network of them covering these different turfs and they are becoming very problematic. They also act as recruitment agencies for the gangs who recruit new young people. And this is something we are going to stop."
He added that gang members have been identified.
In the meantime, the city is removing graffiti as this is how gangs claim their territory and make it a no go zone for their rivals.
"It's very bad. We can’t go to the shops, we can’t sit peacefully in the road because our windows are thrown in. When we stop them they want to stab us.
“If we can have a solution that will get these boys back into school, our neighbourhood watch is willing to get our hands on deck to get these boys into the school," community members said.