SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST FEARED JAIL GANGS EXERT A DEADLY INFLUENCE BOTH BEHIND AND BEYOND THE BARS
When Welcome Witbol walked through the gates of the notorious maximumsecurity Pollsmoor Prison in Cape Town, he was already a hardened gangster with a long and violent criminal career. Witbol had been sent behind bars after being charged with murder, kidnapping and extortion. But whatever reputation he had enjoyed on the outside was meaningless from the moment he was incarcerated at what is widely considered to be one of the most dangerous jails on the planet, and home to more than 7,000 of South Africa’s most violent killers and rapists.
Thrust into a cell holding 120 fellow inmates, he was soon attacked. In a confused attempt to stop the beatings, Witbol blurted out a word he didn’t understand because he’d heard another prisoner successfully use it to placate his own tormentors.
Unwittingly, Witbol had agreed to join the infamous Numbers Gang, the country’s most feared and merciless prison outfit, boasting a membership in the thousands across South Africa’s jails. There was, however, a condition before the gang were ready to accept him into the fold. Witbol had to kill someone to prove his loyalty. Selecting a guard as his target, he was armed with an improvised blade and flanked by two gang members, who were ordered to kill Witbol if he failed to carry out his task or dispose of the weapon should he be successful. He then walked up to the guard and fatally stabbed him. “[In Pollsmoor], just rubbing up against you was a fight, just making a stupid joke and it being misunderstood was a stabbing,” Witbol later said. “You literally saw men raped, men stabbed, men killed. I didn’t even know I’d chosen to become a member of the Numbers. A man said to me, ‘You want to gain influence in prison? You need to stab a correctional officer to gain your stars. Once you gain a star, you gain respect, recognition and loyalty.’ I had to make a choice: do I take the life of this correctional officer or do I allow them to take my life? As I stabbed him in the neck, I watched him fall and a part of me, that conservative good boy, wanted to help. But I also knew helping him would be my demise.”
BRUTALDISCIPLINE
The Numbers Gang can trace its roots back to the late 1800s, when black mineworkers banded together for protection. Today, it is the pre-eminent presence in the South African penal system and is split into three distinct groups – the 26s, 27s and 28s – who, in theory, work together, but have also waged bloody war against each other in the past. The 26s are responsible for business behind bars, smuggling currency,
