[tense music playing]
[Rowe] Brandvlei Maximum Security Prison in South Africa.
Home to some of the country's most violent gangsters.
Murder, money laundering, kidnapping…
But they aren't just any gangsters.
Most of the men here belong to the notorious Number Gangs.
It's a hard place to love, man. Not your mother's house, this one.
They live by a violent code…
My number requires one of the wardens to also die.
…which puts the guards here in danger…
I was stabbed.
…and threatens outsiders like me.
We keep people murdering.
My name is Raphael Rowe,
and I'm spending a week locked in this South African prison
controlled by the Number Gangs.
But it's not my first time behind bars.
I was convicted in the UK of a murder I did not commit
and sentenced to life with no parole.
It took me 12 long years to clear my name.
Now I'm traveling the world
to discover what life is really like
inside some of the world's toughest prisons.
Cape Town, South Africa,
a thriving coastal city.
But on its outskirts are the Cape Flats,
a relic of the apartheid era.
People who were classed as colored were forced to live here in poverty.
And many still do now.
It's become blighted by gang violence,
with an average of eight murders every day.
[gunshots]
It got so dangerous, the army was sent in to try and restore order.
Attention!
Cape Town has one of the highest murder rates in the world,
and tonight I'm going with their Anti-Gangs Unit.
I'm joining the AGU, who are raiding an armed drug gang.
[shotgun clicking]
[siren wailing]
Captain Althea Jefra is leading the raid
into one of the Flat's most notorious neighborhoods.
[Rowe] Do you often come up against gangsters
who themselves carry weapons
and threaten your officers with those weapons?
[Jefra] Yes.
A week and a half ago, the area that we're going to now,
a police officer was shot on duty by gangsters.
So it is a real threat.
Game face.
Into the place and close the door.
They're telling people to get inside.
There's over a hundred thousand gang members in the Flat,
fighting for control over these neighborhoods.
So what is that MG 13? Mongrel?
-[man] Mongrel. -Yeah.
[Rowe] What are they doing with these guys?
Certain gangs have certain markings,
certain abbreviations on their bodies.
-You can see they're Mongrel gang. -He has an MG tattoo.
-That's Mongrel Gang. -Correct.
In this specific block of flats, this is one gang.
[dog barking in distance]
That is a different gang.
-This is his domain. He cannot move. -Right.
We head into one of the blocks of flats
where they've received intelligence that the residents are drug dealers.
I'm Captain Jefra of the Anti-Gang Unit.
I believe you have a large amount of money here.
How much money is in there again?
[man] Wash powder money.
-[Jefra] Wash powder money? -Yeah.
-[Jefra] I wanna buy washing powder. -Sir, what are you out on parole for?
[man] Murder.
[Jefra] Can we go in? I need you to remove your shirt.
We need to see what gang markings you have, sir.
The man has numerous tattoos.
Some from his street gang, but one with a solitary number.
-[man] 26. -[officer] 26, yeah.
The man that lives in the premises is on parole for murder,
and he has the number 26 marked on his body,
which I assume means he is part of the prison's Number Gangs.
These men's lives are totally controlled by the gangs they belong to.
[man speaks Afrikaans]
And if they end up in prison, they simply swap their allegiance
from their street gang to the prison gang
they're affiliated with.
The infamous Number Gangs.
[door clangs]
Many of the men arrested in last night's raid
will eventually find themselves here,
Brandvlei Maximum Security Prison.
I'm sweating in the back of this truck,
about to spend a week here to find out what it's like
being an inmate in a prison dominated by the Number Gangs.
As a foreigner, as a new prisoner
who doesn't have any affiliations to any of the gangs
that run these prisons…
I don't know how they're gonna take to me.
I want to find out how this prison can operate
when the gangs hold so much power.
How do they maintain control of prisoners
that have their own system, their own hierarchy,
their own rules, their own way of doing things?
How do the guards keep themselves safe
and new prisoners like me?
-[guard] Sir. -Yeah?
Men here are transferred from prisons all over the Western Cape
to serve out their very long sentences for the most serious crimes.
The simple fact that they need to not only handcuff you, but ankle chain you,
suggests that they're dealing with hardened criminals
who they take maximum measure to secure.
Just follow our orders. Once I release your hand, put it on your right knee.
What is gonna take place now is, we're gonna do a strip search.
So you will need to remove all your clothing.
Just keep on your underwear.
[Rowe sighs softly]
What we're doing while you are undressing,
we are checking your body for tattoos.
Turn around for me.
Lift up your arms.
The Number Gang, as we have in South Africa,
normally put gang tattoos on them.
It is to identify who they are.
-[Rowe] You can see I don't have tattoos. -Yes, sir.
So, there is no sign that I am a member of a Number Gang?
Yes. They call it in Afrikaans a frans. So, it's non-gang member.
So, my advice to you is, don't go in there looking afraid,
and follow the instructions. Do what they say.
Because as a non-gang member, you are not allowed to do anything
without them telling you what to do.
It is the way they work. They have a code of conduct.
Code of conduct that you have no control over?
That we have no control over.
Okay.
I'm processed through the system and allocated a unit.
You've been identified to go to the unit we call K-3.
[Rowe] What can I expect in K-3?
[Gerber] It's the unit with the most active gang members.
So, all of our offenders that is related to the prison gang,
they are all housed in that unit.
I'm starting to feel increasingly nervous about the reception I'm going to get.
[Rowe] Who are these Number Gang members?
What will they expect of me?
[Gerber] This is the unit where you will stay.
Before I'm assigned a cell, I'm told to report to Mr. Hendry,
the head of K-3 for orientation.
Raphael Rowe.
Tell me, do you belong to any gangs?
[Rowe] No.
-Not a gang member of any kind. -[Rowe] Not at all.
[Hendry] There are three main gangs here.
The 26s, the 27s, and the 28s.
There are certain…
[sighs] ...rituals…
that do take place in South African prisons.
You don't go into the room and just jump on any bed you see there…
take the bed for yourself.
I can give you a bed and say, "Listen, Raphael, sleep here."
When I turn my back and lock, they're gonna remove you from that bed.
-Mm-hmm. -They're gonna place you
where they want you to sleep.
You have no control over their way of operating?
We're trying our best to stop it, but…
it's no use.
Mr. Buetzengarke, you can take him to room ten.
I'm told every inmate in K-3
belongs to one of the three factions of the prison gang.
The Number, the 26s, the 27s , and the 28s.
Stay away from prison. This is a hard place to love, man.
It's not your mother's house, this one.
-[man laughs] -[speaks Afrikaans]
The guys are locked behind these caged doors, these iron bars. Um...
And I'm about to go into my cell and meet my cellmates for the first time.
I'll be sharing a cramped cell with eight gangsters from the Cape Flats,
all members of the Number.
-[indistinct chatter] -[prisoner yelling]
[Rowe] Here?
How you doing? I'm Raphael.
I try to introduce myself to my cellmates,
but they totally blank me.
I've never had a reception like this before.
Instead, my cellmates salute each other with hand signals
and hold a meeting in a strange language.
[sighs] I have no idea what they're doing.
I'm locked in the cell, and now these guys are in complete control.
-You speak English? -Yes.
Why you in prison?
My name's Raphael.
Raphael. Why you in prison?
-I'm nobody. -Nobody?
What do you have?
Money?
Anything? Coat? Anything?
-I don't have anything. -You don't--
-They took everything from me. -They took everything?
If we gonna search, we gonna get anything,
it's gonna be your own fault, captain. [speaks Sabela]
Pants. Now gonna talk to you.
What I've told them seems to be reported back to two of my cellmates,
Lee and Curtis, who now want to talk to me.
You sit here. You don't talk much. When I speak, you just answer.
-Okay. -[speaks indistinctly]
-So, your name is Raphael? -Raphael.
From where are you outside?
-I'm from England. -From England?
-From London. -From London.
I see you got a nice pair of Takkies on.
Because I see you didn't bring with nothing, man.
They took all my belongings.
All your belongings?
I don't have property, only a pair of tracks they bought.
Yeah, but you are so stupid.
Think about the people who are gonna come get them.
-I didn't have a chance. -It's not chance.
We'll talk later, me and you.
Way I see, you got nice Takkies, everything is nice.
[Curtis] What size Takkies do you wear?
-8. -It look like your size.
-It's my size. -Let me see these.
These Takkies look very nice, yeah.
-They're a new Takkie. -This Takkie look nice.
This feels like it's more than just robbing my trainers.
They want to humiliate me.
[Lee] Does look like your size.
-Would you mind if I take these Takkies? -Put this on.
-I would mind. -[Curtis] Would you mind?
-[Lee] Put this one on. -You would mind?
[Lee] This is not a thing of asking. We are taking those Takkie.
Because you know why?
You are a white guy, and you got lot of money.
You can start on that Takkie.
You don't have any say here.
You understand?
I do understand.
We will take your life, even if it's for a pair of Takkies.
-[Rowe] I understand. -Yeah.
So everything is all right now?
I'm not happy, but I understand.
You have to. We don't care about your feelings.
We two, we are the 8s.
-We are the head of the 8s. -Okay.
If you don't make problems, I won't make problems.
-I don't make problem. -Then it's fine.
[Lee] You must make your own bed.
I'll help you to show you what is going on.
Lee and Curtis are the 28s running the cell,
and it doesn't look like they're going to give me an easy time.
The only thing you're gonna survive is with money.
I know white people. They got money.
-[Rowe] I'm not white. -It's easy.
-[Curtis] You're not white? -[Rowe] I'm not.
My father is Black. My mama is white.
So, you only look white, but you… Inside, you Black.
-True. -Oh, okay.
[Lee] Come.
This… look, is your bed.
You will sleep here.
Once Lee has assigned me a bed,
I'm introduced to the other Numbers in the cell.
-This is Troubles. -[Rowe] Mm-hmm.
This is a 26.
He's here for seven lifes.
He's also here for murder. He's from Wasbank.
-You see him? -Mm-hmm.
The guys are obviously trying to bully me,
and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't intimidated.
[Lee] This guy…
this is Klope.
-[Rowe] Mm-hmm. -[Lee] He's 27s.
[Rowe] Mm-hmm.
He's notorious guy. A hitman from Manenberg.
-Mm-hmm. -[Lee] You see?
You see how this guy, this guy think maybe we look like him.
He's a white guy, yeah, my bro.
They're making it pretty clear that I'm not one of them.
-You hear what this guy say? -[Rowe] Mm-hmm.
You say, "Mm-hmm."
Look how you look now.
Are you gonna tell the wardens we took your Takkies?
-[Rowe] Of course not. -Are you sure?
I'm not gonna tell anybody anything.
My cellmates, who have numerous murder convictions between them,
have got a task for me.
You're gonna… You see, today is your first day.
You're gonna wash up few of clothes here of ours, man.
-[Rowe] You want me to wash this? -[Lee] Wash everything on you.
Everything you're gonna wash today.
Teach you how to wash clothes with your hands.
[indistinct chatter]
I'm put in my place as the washing boy.
So, I'm being intimidated.
I'm being asked to do things.
I'm kind of complying with what the guys are asking me to do for now.
[Curtis] Dry off them when you finish them.
If you are frans, then you do that for us.
[Rowe] If I'm the what?
[Troubles] If you are frans.
Listen what I'm saying. If you don't have a stamp on you like 26, 27, 28--
-[Rowe] Okay. -You see?
If you don't have a stamp, then you do that for us.
But if you do have a stamp, then we don't do that with you.
Then you are one of us. You see?
That's how it work in prison.
As a non-gang member, or a frans,
it looks like I'm at the bottom of the pile.
[Lee] You're gonna make a phone call.
Give you the account number your people must send money
into my people's account outside.
We gonna survive, so…
And if I don't?
There's not a thing of don't.
-You know what I mean? -I do, yes.
Clearly, I've got three options.
Pay for protection, become a member of a gang,
or get pushed around like a servant.
[Rowe] Prisons I was in in England--
[Lee] This is not England. This is South Africa.
Everyone in this room, we just…
We just keep people murdering. I don't have time with this.
Can I finish with this stuff, yeah? Because I see you talk a lot, man.
[urine flowing, toilet flushes]
[Rowe] I think they're testing me.
And I'm not gonna say no to their challenges
because it would just provoke them into disliking me,
I don't need them disliking me on the very first minute
I walked in the door.
It's only the end of my first day, and if this is the life of a frans,
I can see why so many join the Number Gangs.
The next morning, I'm relieved the guys are paying me less attention
as they get ready for breakfast.
[Rowe] Everybody's taking their turn.
They'll file out, get some breakfast.
And that's how the day starts.
I'm looking forward to getting out of this cramped cell
and getting some fresh air.
[indistinct chattering]
You get your breakfast and eat there, or you got to eat here?
[prisoner] No, you eat in here.
[Rowe] You've never been able to eat outside?
[prisoner] We are the maximum security
'cause we a lot of killers in.
They see us like dangerous people.
-[Rowe] But are you? -Are we dangerous people?
Okay. I'm talking about myself. I am a dangerous person.
I don't like to be friends with them because they are not my friends.
According to my number.
We're searched for weapons just to go out and get breakfast.
And within moments, we're locked up in the cell again.
[electronic music plays]
[Rowe] Why's your tray bigger?
That means you get more than me.
Because I ask the guy.
Because I ask the guy for more. I don't like eating small, man.
Sitting down for breakfast with my cellmates,
I want to learn more about the weird initiation
they put me through yesterday.
May I ask you a question? When I first came in here yesterday,
you were talking
in a language I've never heard before.
It wasn't Afrikaans. It wasn't English. What was the language?
When you were having a conference,
-what was that language? -It's called… Sabela.
[Rowe] What is Sabela?
Is it a special language?
It's the language that you learn in the Number.
-[Rowe] It's a Number Gang-- -Number Gang.
[Rowe] Oh, really.
So, if I'm not a Number, you can't speak that.
You don't learn that... that language.
So, when my man was coming to me
and asking me questions, and he was coming back and reporting to you--
-He was like asking you who are you? -Yeah.
-We wanna know who are you inside prison. -Okay.
-And why is that important? -It's the way you'll earn your respect.
If me and Troubles is having a fight,
Curtis must… He must have the ability to stop us.
And when he speak, immediately, we have to listen to him.
He's the highest rank, and we're under him.
You're the highest ranked here?
True.
-[Lee speaks Sabela] -In the 28s.
You have ranks in Numbers?
Yeah, ranks in Numbers from soldier to up.
I can see my cellmates have various tattoos
with stars or lapels that look like military insignia.
How do you rise through the ranks?
Is it what you… Is it your diplomacy? Is it because you're good at negotiating?
[prisoner] Just a moment.
Raphael, when you talk about the Number,
you must be very careful
-what you say about the Number. -[Rowe] Mm-hmm.
[prisoner] The things you are asking...
-[Rowe] Mm-hmm. -...that's confidential things, okay?
You mean questions about--
-The Number. -[Rowe] Mm.
If it weren't for the Number…
even the wardens would not have the control they have over the prison.
[Lee speaks Sabela]
Because of the Number,
you see the discipline you see.
You see the order you see.
Like the laws they have in their books, we have laws also.
Each and every one of us,
we grew up in this thing.
We are not going to let go that easily
of what we know or what we have.
You don't want people to understand those things--
No, it's not a matter of I don't want them to understand.
It's for his own safety. People get killed for those things.
Challenge or the disrespect.
My cellmates, like all the men in this unit,
are extremely dangerous.
But if they all belong to the same gangs,
why can't we go outside to associate and eat?
When you want the guard to come over, you call him chief.
Chief! You mind? Chief?
Can I speak to you a minute?
[prisoner chuckles]
-Good day. -Good day. Uh…
They're never able to go out there and sit at those tables and eat their food.
Why is that?
It is better for us to handle ten inmates…
than to handle all 60 of them.
[Rowe] Okay.
Maybe some of them have a problem with a guy that side.
But you didn't know.
-Go stab him or whatever he was doing. -Mm.
[guard] And know what will be the outcome of that?
They will come back on us.
On the staff?
They will come back on us.
Prisoner's not gonna just walk out of a cell and stab a guard for no reason.
In 1995, they stabbed me without a reason.
-You were stabbed? -No other… I was stabbed.
I was passing the grill. He stabbed me through it.
I ask him, "Why do you stab me?" He said, "You are the closest."
We did say, "Wrong place, wrong time."
Yes.
But they all know, if you join the Number…
sometimes your one year can become 20 years.
So, that is the decision that they all make for themselves.
The only time the dangerous prisoners here get outside
is when they get short exercise sessions.
Breakfast over, and I'm being taken out
with another cell for a game of cricket.
[inmates chattering, yelling indistinctly]
[Rowe] One guy there, he's, um… He's got tattoos all over his face and--
Oh, he's coming over to me.
Hi. How're you doing? You all right?
Fine. How are you doing?
-I'm Raphael. -Okay, I'm Masalino.
Masalino? Okay.
[Masalino] In prison, they call me Graveyard.
-Graveyard? -[Masalino] Ah.
-Graveyard? -Graveyard, yeah.
[man exclaims]
-You play cricket? -I…
-Yeah, I can play cricket. -Okay.
I'm not saying I'm good but I can play.
-Okay. -Yeah?
-[Masalino] Come. -[Rowe] Okay.
Guy's name is Raphael, oh, ne? He also want to play cricket, man.
[upbeat music plays]
[man yells]
His nickname, tattoo face, is "The Graveyard."
It's not that hard to work out that Masalino's part of the prison gang.
He's got the number 28 tattooed on his forehead.
I want to show him how. Raphael?
Just let me show you.
First…
I don't have power in the shoulders anymore.
-No. How come? -No.
-I'm old. -[laughing] You're old!
I'm getting old. It's hard work.
Oh, that's fast.
[all cheering]
[Masalino] Raphael!
[Masalino chuckling]
How long is your sentence now?
Life.
You're doing life?
-What did you do? -Many crimes.
Murder, money laundering, kidnapping, attempted murder.
-[whistle blows] -All that stuff.
And what was your previous sentence?
I was here for 12 years.
-What was that for? -Murder.
Who did you kill?
My uncle.
-You killed your uncle? -Mm.
And who did you kill this time?
Oh, other gang member.
So, you've committed two murders? Or more?
More. More, more.
My cases, what they got is 24 cases.
-Twenty-four murder cases? -Mm-hmm.
-How did you kill people? -With guns.
-You shoot people? -Shoot people.
So, in prison, you're a 28?
I'm a 28, yeah.
What rank are you?
I am a colonel-general.
I have many stars.
Got six-six.
-You have the same on the other side? -Yeah.
And what does that mean? That's your rank as general? Colonel-general?
[Masalino] Yeah.
How do you get to the rank of colonel?
Obviously, you must take blood.
-In prison? -Yeah.
The blood of who?
The warders.
And maybe other brother of mine,
he hit the 26 or 27.
-They have a fight. -Now they fight, and there is blood.
[Rowe] Okay.
Now, ne, since there's blood, that blood must be refill.
[Rowe] Okay.
I have to take a knife or something
and stab a warder.
That's the only thing that's gonna make things right.
It seems bizarre. Why the wardens, who are not involved in the Numbers?
Why do they become the target of blood?
That is the way it is.
That's the way it is.
Masalino's the first person to speak to me
about why the men in the gangs stab random guards.
I'm guessing he can do that because he's managed
to get to the rank of colonel-general in the Number.
[Rowe] And what he's had to do to get to where he is today
is shocking, really.
In order to…
move up the ranks, or in order to revenge the blood spilling of one of their own,
in order to keep the peace, they have to draw the blood of a warden.
It makes me wonder how the wardens here feel,
working alongside prisoners
who might stab them at any moment for no real reason.
[evocative music plays]
After just half an hour outside,
I'm back in the cell where we'll spend the next 23 and a half hours
of the day.
The claustrophobia is unbearable.
All we've got is a crackly TV that we can't control
and a game called Stokes drawn on a bed sheet.
[indistinct chatter]
[prisoners chattering]
-[Lee] Take him. -[Rowe] Both?
-[prisoner 1] Both. -[Lee] You take him. Both.
[prisoner 2] Killed him.
-[prisoner 3] Now kill. -Who did I kill?
-You killed me. -You are wanted by him.
-[Lee] You are wanted. -I'm going to get you.
-[Lee] You are wanted. -[Troubles speaks Sabela]
-[Curtis] First time in prison? -[Rowe] I was in prison
in England, murder and robbery.
And this robbery, did you use a gun?
Can I explain this once?
Whether you believe me or not is entirely up to you.
-Okay. -[Curtis] We can hear if you lie.
[Rowe] You can hear if I'm lying.
Fine. That's fine. You can judge me how you want.
-But I was accused… -Ah.
-…of being part of a gang. -[Lee] Ah.
-Not here in South Africa, but in England… -[Lee] Okay.
-…that was involved in robberies… -[Lee] Ah.
…of very rich people.
And we ended up getting taken to court…
convicted, and sentenced to prison…
for life.
For the murder and robberies.
And then after 12 years…
they found evidence that proved I didn't do it.
-[Lee] Mm. -[Curtis] But what about all your pain
that you went through?
12 years, he's missed 12 years.
It's not 12 days or 12 hours.
Does anybody care about your pain in here?
Now the men know my history as an ex-prisoner,
they're finally beginning to accept me.
All of us here is Numbers.
This whole room, you the only frans here.
So, we have to decide now what position you can be put in.
But does it have to be like that? Is it the only way?
Sooner or later, you have to make a decision.
To yourself. To… To survive.
Most of us come in here, we don't go out again.
These guys seem happy enough in a cell together.
So, why can't they just get along without being in a prison gang?
We also have gangs…
outside that we belong to.
Like me, I'm American outside.
-[Rowe] Is that another gang? -Yes, many gangs outside.
We fight outside.
You see, over turf, smuggling…
You see, in prison, we are brothers.
[Curtis] Outside, this is a whole different story.
Even after you've lived the same experience in prison?
Even after 20 years we were together here,
if I catch him outside, I will kill him.
It seems like the Number binds these men together against the authorities.
No matter how much they hate each other on the outside,
they leave their grudge at the prison gates.
It's my third day here,
and I'm being sent to work in Brandvlei's medium security unit,
where my cellmates could be transferred
if they don't get involved in the gang violence organized by the Number.
[indistinct chatter]
This is feeling very different from the maximum security side.
[yelling]
Unlike the brand-new maximum facility I've just come from,
the medium looks like it hasn't been updated for decades.
[indistinct chatter]
In the maximum, is well-maintained.
-[men yelling indistinctly] -This is worn.
You know, and they kind of make do with what they have.
Um, but it has a different atmosphere.
In comparison to being locked up
for 23 and a half hours a day in K-3,
here, inmates are given free run of the prison grounds for most of the day.
It's like a makeshift cinema.
While I'm waiting for my work duty, I get confronted by an inmate.
I'm gonna ask, who are you? What are you doing here? Here, like here.
[Rowe] Why do you ask that?
-This is my work to find out who are you. -[Rowe] Okay.
So that I can go tell the others who are you.
-[Rowe] Okay. -Understand?
I'm the 27, and this is my 28. He's my friend.
Okay.
We are gonna leave you for today. Is all right? We will come again.
-Ne? Yeah. -Okay.
What I've noticed here, even in medium,
is the moment I stand anywhere
and just relax, I get approached,
and on occasions, I felt uncomfortable
because I look into the face of a guy, and he looks at me,
and his first question is, "Where are you from? What are you doing here?"
So, even though this place is different, it has a less tense atmosphere,
it's not free of the Number ideology, culture, and behavior.
Men here are transferred from the maximum unit
only once they have shown they are willing to abide by the regime.
Eight-five percent of them go to work,
and the medium feeds the whole of the prison complex
from its 6,000 hectares of farm land, where I'll be working today.
-[prisoner] That is the maximum prison. -[Rowe] I've been there.
Driving past the maximum on their way to work
is a daily reminder of what they've earned from their good behavior.
I was there three years, six months.
-[Rowe] Three years, six months? -From my 14 years here.
-But it's tough. -It's tough there, yeah, inside.
[Rowe] Beautiful scenery.
I mean, if you've been in prison for a number of years,
and then you earn the right to go into the medium center…
[truck rattling]
…as noisy and as bumpy as it is,
it's a privilege.
[upbeat music playing]
This is what they're producing.
Loads and loads of carrots.
-[prisoner] Sir? -[Rowe] Yes?
[prisoner] Break the carrots.
-[Rowe] Break the carrot? -Yes.
[Rowe] You harvest, they break?
Which is the easiest job then?
The easiest… There's no easy jobs.
[Rowe] Good answer.
-No easy job. -[Rowe] Good answer.
-[prisoner] Yeah. -[Rowe] I'm with you.
Convicted robber, Senador, has been allowed
to work on the carrot fields for seven months now.
What am I doing here then? You just--
-You just break that. -Just like this?
How many of these crates have we gotta fill up?
I think they said today's a hundred.
[Rowe] A hundred of these crates?
What are…? What is your prison sentence at the moment?
And what time are you doing now?
I'm doing five, five years for robbery.
-[Rowe] 5 years for robbery. -At any time, I'll be out of prison.
You're almost coming to the end of your sentence.
Actually, I've had enough of this life now, you understand?
'Cause I've been in and out,
and I have tried before also to change, but…
it was too hard for me, but this time I'll really make a change.
Why do you really believe that you've changed this time
and not just saying that?
By accepting my Lord Jesus Christ as my Savior.
I'm gonna make an honest living outside.
Will people employ people like you outside?
Well, in most of the times, it's very hard for people to accept one,
especially when you have these marks on you and these tattoos, but--
[Rowe] Which mark?
Oh, right. So you've got "Son Op Salute Twenty-six."
-[Senador] Yeah. -[Rowe] Okay.
"They hate me for my pride," and all this stuff.
They say, by the hospital, they can remove it again, make it clear.
Yeah. Would you do that?
I would. I will apply to do it, yeah.
[Rowe] You'd like to do it, but you don't know if you can…
I'm not sure if I can do it, but I'm gonna check.
I'm no longer a slave. I'm a child of God.
In the prison gang, they remember me
as one of their brothers, but I say to them I am no longer one of them.
Senador is the first person I've met who wants to leave the gang.
Can you leave?
Can you just stop being one if you want to just stop being one?
I'm not willing to talk about this stuff right now.
-Understand? -[Rowe] Okay.
[Senador] Is a waste of my life.
I want something good for my life on one day.
[Rowe] And only you can do that. No one can do it for you.
I wonder if the Number Gang will ever allow Senador to leave,
and what life has in store for him when he gets back to the Cape Flats.
[calm music playing]
The next morning in medium,
and I'm told to assist a fellow inmate on his daily duties.
[guard] Bradley!
Where's Bradley?
-[guard] Good day, ne? -What is it?
-How are you? -Pleased to meet you.
[guard] He's going to assist you with your daily duties.
Okay. This is the way we put on the uniform.
-You got it correct. -Have I?
You look like a new one, a newbie that just arrived.
Everybody does this to me. This must be--
[Rowe] So, do you have a single room, or are you sharing?
[Bradley] We're in a big room.
Bradley's been in medium for seven months
and is a frans, or a non-gang member, just like me.
[Bradley] Forty-eight in total.
-[Rowe] 48? -Yeah, 48.
-[Rowe] Okay. -This is my bed.
-[Rowe] Wow, 48 in each cell. -[Bradley] Yeah.
And I thought my cell in maximum was cramped.
At least most of Bradley's day is spent outside,
calling inmates for meetings with officials and councilors.
[Bradley] These are the lists I get daily.
Uh, for psychology, social worker, parole board.
Do you wanna… Can you pronounce that name?
[Rowe] What's that name there?
[Bradley] Ampendulo Yakelo?
Ampulo Yakelo!
Ampendulo Yakelo?
-Becoming South African, you've got that-- -[Rowe] He's coming.
[Bradley] Uh, Ampendulo Yakelo? Is he here?
Ampendulo Yakelo!
[man speaking indistinctly]
[speaking foreign language]
-[Bradley] He's outside. -Ah.
I normally just shout like a mad thing.
Ampendulo Yakelo!
-Yes? -You're on the list for a social worker
for tomorrow, Mr. Moore say.
Don't forget your appointment tomorrow morning.
-Okay. -Thank you, Mr. Yakelo.
Bradley sticks out like a sore thumb.
But it looks like he's been able to find a way to do his job
without hassle from the gangs.
[Bradley] Me coming from a different life, middle to upper class life…
-[Rowe] Okay. -…not, um…
Not a Number.
Um, me also being a bit light in color, et cetera,
was extremely difficult.
At the end of the day, it took, um, a lot of…
[sighs] …money, definitely money.
-Really? You had to buy-- -Yeah, definitely.
I had to pay for protection, If you wanna put it in simple words.
Yeah, but how did you navigate the challenge of more than one person
wanting what you could provide?
There's a simple routine.
If you go to the shop once a month, and I'll just buy, um,
tobacco, tobacco, coffee, coffee, sugar, sugar, creamer, creamer.
-That's it. -Oh, okay.
-So you bought two of everything. -Correct.
-And did it work? -Yes.
I'm alive, yes.
And I wasn't forcefully… whatever, molested, et cetera, whatever.
You were never physically beaten. You were able to buy your way out.
[Bradley] Buy my way out.
To survive as a frans in these prisons and avoid violence,
inmates like Bradley choose to strike a deal.
He's been able to navigate around becoming a Number
because he's been able to buy himself out of being beaten
or bullied or having his belongings taken away.
Today, I'm back in maximum.
I want to talk to Curtis,
who's shown a tough exterior while I've been living with him.
But something about the way he carries himself
makes me think his rank in the Number
is weighing heavily on his shoulders.
Are you from the Cape Flats?
I did grow up in the Cape Flats.
You are serving a very long sentence.
Twenty-five years.
What did you do to get 25 years?
My case is murder
and robbery with aggravating circumstances.
There's one thing I notice, if you don't mind me saying.
I sense something in your facial expression
that… that is almost worry…
because of your rank in the Number.
Because of the responsibility that rests on your shoulders.
For example, two guys, two Number guys, get into a fracas.
One punches the other one. His nose bleeds.
You have to make a decision.
You're part of that decision processing.
-Mm. -[Rowe] Because of your rank.
And the decision has to be, blood has to be taken from the guard.
[Curtis] True.
To be honest with you, there is already a situation.
Five years back when I came here,
an inmate took a padlock, and he beat this warden.
It was on the unit were I was sleeping.
[inmates chattering, laughing]
The 28 gang member that launched this vicious attack
later died from injuries he sustained during the incident.
As of yet, there's been no retaliation
-from the 28s in this prison. -[barking]
A 28 was beaten to death.
Unfortunately, my Number requires
one of the wardens to also die.
Who is going to do that?
That is something that is now upon my responsibility
because I was present.
It is still hanging like a cloud
over the 28s here by this prison.
It seems mad.
If Curtis gets involved in this revenge killing,
he'll likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
And if you don't do something, then…
Seeing that I did nothing…
I will be brought to book.
-[Rowe] By your Number? -By my Number.
They have to take my blood.
If it comes to that point, I will have to make that decision.
-Okay. -And that is like a split-second decision.
-Okay. -I go with it, or I don't.
I'm worried for Curtis.
He seems trapped by his duty as a ranking 28.
[Rowe] He's reached where he's wanted to reach.
But that comes at a price.
And right now, for him, that price is the blood of a warden.
[crickets chirping]
Today, I want to understand what it's like for the guards
who are under constant threat from gang violence.
So, how long have you been working in this establishment?
I've been at maximum for four years.
[Rowe] And what do you do? What is your role?
[Gerber] I am a EST member,
so Emergency Support Team.
We are the specialized guys that come in for specialized search operations,
um, riot control, cell extractions,
and stuff like that.
Gerber has to manage the gangs on a daily basis.
[inmate yelling]
What do you see as the biggest challenge in this prison?
The biggest challenge that we are facing
is working with the offenders that we have that is involved in the Number Gang.
We are facing violence every day at any moment.
We never know when it will happen.
One of the threats here is that, I think 5 or 6 years ago,
there was quite a dramatic incident
where a prisoner lost his life. There was a conflict between prisoners and guards.
What's your knowledge of that?
That some of them gang members that was involved that day is still in our center.
So, the way that they see to fix it,
is to draw the blood of one of our officers.
And we look out for it every day.
Because you never know when something can take place.
What does it feel like to be under that threat?
You just try to go by it day by day,
not thinking about it too much because if you do,
it's gonna eat you up from inside.
And you're gonna have a mental breakdown
somewhere along the line.
What can be done to break up this hierarchy
and everything the Number Gangs represent?
Well, to be honest with you… [chuckles]
…I don't think we will ever succeed in breaking it up.
But what we can do and what we're doing at the moment as well
is implementing gang management,
splitting up members that need to make the decision.
If, let's say, the decision is to draw blood
of a correction officer,
they can make that decision
and make it happen before we have the information.
For the moment, at least,
it looks like the regime is dealing with active members of the Number
by isolating them in small groups
so they can't conspire as easily.
But there are some members of the gang who are so dangerous,
even this tightly run prison can't hold them.
These men are held in isolation here,
Ebongweni Super Max,
the most secure prison in South Africa.
I'm here to meet George Thomas.
As a reported leader of the 28s,
he was found guilty of numerous gang-related crimes
and seven murders.
Some of those he killed were due to testify against him.
And he was found guilty of organizing their assassinations
through his gang connections from inside his prison cell.
Now he's serving multiple life sentences in this concrete room,
designed to throttle his influence over the Number Gang.
[ominous music playing]
Come sit next to me. -[Rowe] Okay.
I've read lots of things,
been told lots of things about George Thomas.
I was not an angel.
[Rowe] No.
When did you first start to get involved in crime?
I was just an ordinary kid.
And then I became involved with the gangs.
There was other gangs there.
They got…
two houses where they smuggle.
We went to that house one night.
I think we were carrying an R4 rifle assault gun,
three nine-millimeter Z-88s
and a hand grenade, and we attacked them.
And then we shot some of them.
[Rowe] Shot them dead?
We shot nine.
-[Rowe] Dead. -We shot 9.
I'm not sure how many died there, but we shot nine.
George has been in and out of prison all his life.
Tell me about your tattoos, why you had, you know, your face tattooed,
and your neck and your body.
When I came to prison in the apartheid years, ne,
we have a lot of time on our hands.
That is how we start to tattoo each other.
George's tattoos tell the dark story of his climb
up the ranks of the Number.
[Rowe] So, you took the Number rank very seriously.
[George] I was inspector that time. There's no higher rank.
I think in 1994, 1995,
we stabbed 27 warders.
27 warders?
Twenty-seven warders.
-On Brandvlei at that time. -Why?
Because of the circumstances that time inside prison.
They didn't listen to our complaints.
And besides, the 28 Gang,
it was just an organization
that stems out of the system of the apartheid years.
But now, the majority of the wardens are just like you.
They suffered in the same way as you.
-They went through apartheid. -I agree. That's why I'm saying.
I don't agree with what is happening now.
Because after democracy, we can talk.
You know, you are in this concrete tomb.
As a 28 general…
what influence do you still have from this…
tomb?
-[George] Inside or outside? -Both.
I am still in contact with a lot of my friends.
But mostly now, I'm trying to encourage them
to move away from the old ways.
Even George Thomas,
the highest ranking gang member I've met,
seems to be turning his back on the Number's violent code.
He admitted that he…
was able to influence and can still, if he wanted to,
influence people outside.
Only now, he said the message he's sending out from inside is a positive one.
I suppose the big question is, has he changed?
Or is he still…
a very influential and dangerous man?
I want to ask the governor if the prison can ever make a positive difference
to the men's lives
when so many of them are still controlled by the Number Gang.
The Numbers have their own structure of how they go about doing their things
that is different from the regime that you are trying to run here.
Does that make rehabilitating prisoners harder?
Yes. But currently in South Africa,
the social economic systems, poverty is the problem.
-There's no work outside. -[Rowe] Mm.
Just for one example, so now they will go to the gangsters
because somehow he needs some food on the table.
And some of the offenders, especially with gangsters,
it's mostly the offenders, uh, who got nothing…
in life.
This maximum unit is a new facility,
and so, what's different now to what went before?
There was no rehabilitation at all in the past.
-Okay. -Years back…
it was unlock and lock up.
Our system now, we have a lot of changes in correctional services.
We move from more punitive to a rehabilitative side.
Some of them will come and change. They are not interested in gangster-ism.
-Then we take them out. -[Rowe] Mm.
We actually take their hands and try to rehabilitate them,
try to support them, to go out, be law-abiding citizens again.
I've come to the end of my time at Brandvlei prison.
[sighs]
Gang culture is an inescapable part of prison life here in South Africa.
The Number may keep the peace between rival street gangs inside,
but it makes it harder for the regime to rehabilitate its inmates.
Eradicating it is an impossible task.
Once branded a 26, a 27, or a 28,
that stigma will live with these men for the rest of their lives.
[evocative music plays]