The Hard Livings gang is a large

street gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...

and

organized crime Organized crime is a category of transnational organized crime, transnational, national, or local group of centralized enterprises run to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally thought of as a f ...

group based in

Manenberg Manenberg is a neighbourhood of Cape Town, South Africa that was created by the apartheid government in 1966 for low-income Coloured families in the Cape Flats

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

. A number of other smaller gangs form part of the Hard Livings gang and owe allegiance to it. The Hard Livings used to be one of two 'super gangs' in Cape Town with the other one being ''The Americans''. The gang was formed in 1971 by

Rashied Staggie Rashied Staggie (1961 - 13 December 2019) was a South African gangster and leader of the Hard Livings gang. He was shot and killed in Salt River on 13 December 2019, in Cape Town, South Africa. His twin brother, Rashaad Staggie, the initial le ...

and his twin brother Rashaad. The gang started out as a criminal street gang mostly involved in drug distribution for which they competed with the Americans gang. After their distribution network grew, the Hard Livings gang as well as their rivals evolved into a structured criminal organization involved in a wide range of criminal activities. In 1996 Rashaad was publicly set alight and killed by the

vigilante Vigilantism () is the act of preventing, investigating, and punishing perceived offenses and crimes without legal authority. A vigilante is a person who practices or partakes in vigilantism, or undertakes public safety and retributive justice ...

group PAGAD. In December 2019, Rashied was shot and killed in the same street where Rashaad was killed. In the 1990s and early 2000s the gang was known to have had a strong presence in the wealthy Green Point and

Sea Point Sea Point (Afrikaans: ''Seepunt'') is an affluent and densely populated suburb of Cape Town, situated in the Western Cape, between Signal Hill and the Atlantic Ocean, a few kilometres to the west of Cape Town's Central Business District (CBD). M ...

areas of Cape Town. The gang is known to have been involved in both international and local organized crime. Their local activities range from drug running & trading, poaching, protection rackets, prostitution and

shebeen A shebeen (, "home-made whiskey") was originally an illicit bar or club where accessible alcoholic beverages were sold without a license. The term has spread far from its origins in Ireland, to Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Zimb ...

ing (provision of unlicensed drinking places). They have associations with Westbury gang, Varador Cortet. Internationally they have been known to have cooperated with the

Sicilian mafia The Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra (, ; "our thing"), also referred to as simply Mafia, is a secret society, criminal society and criminal organization originating on the island of Sicily and dates back to the mid-19th century. Emerging as a form of ...

in the trafficking of illegal diamonds as well as trafficking cannabis to Europe.

References

{{Reflist Organizations established in 1971 1971 establishments in South Africa Gangs in South Africa Organisations based in Cape Town Crime in Cape Town