‘A timebomb’ Why South Africans are giving up on the state

One evening a week, Natasha Msweswe and Zanele Madasi leave their children at home and patrol the streets of Thembokwezi. They return at midnight. It is potentially dangerous but they feel they have little choice.

“We want to protect our community,” said Madasi, 31. “We want to make a difference.”

Thembokwezi is a neighbour-hood of Khayelitsha, a sprawling, overcrowded township overlooked by Table Mountain that has long been infamous for high levels of gang violence, drug abuse and unemployment. South African police are stretched thin and so a network of neighbourhood watch organisations play a key role in fighting crime here. Thembokwezi is more prosperous and safer than much of the township, and those who live here want to keep it that way. “We work with the police … but if