Rashied Staggie

Rashied Staggie is a former gang leader^[1] in Cape Town, South Africa. His twin brother, Rashaad Staggie, was leader of the Hard Livings gang who was killed after being shot and burned alive in Salt River, Cape Town in 1996 by members of the vigilante group PAGAD.^[2]

In 2004 Staggie was convicted of burglary from the Faure police armoury and sentenced to 13 years in prison. In May 2013 the Western Cape department of correctional services announced that Staggie will be released on parole for good behaviour in late September 2013.^[3]

Early years

Rashied was born in the Cape Town Suburb of Mooirivier in 1956. The Group Areas Act created forced removals of coloured peoples from so called white areas to a less desirable part of town. The Cape Flats became a place where more than a million displaced coloured and black people were relocated. Rashieds family were moved to Mannenberg in 1969. The area was poverty stricken and was without access to proper infrastructure and services. Due to the pressures of this poverty and hard living, Rahied and his brother Rashaad resorted to petty crimes for survival.

He was really born in the Paarl in the boland area of the Western Cape province

Criminal Career

By the time the twins were teenagers they were active drug dealers and were able to make some money. As they got older they became more aggressive and influential in the Cape Town underworld. By the 1990s the twins were notorious gang leaders and their gang the Hard Livings had members all around the Cape Peninsula. The Hard Livings gang participated in a range of crimes such as armed robbery, dealing of guns and drug distribution. The Hard Livings had clashes with rival gangs the Americans and the Mongrols. Under the rule of Rashied Staggie, the Hard Livings took part in violent gang wars that lead to a bloodbath in the streets of Cape Town. Rashied's twin brother Rashaad, was killed by the extremist Islamic group PAGAD, outside his house in Salt river in 1996.

References