Inside the World's Toughest Prisons - Fifth Season

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.

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.

Captain Althea Jefra is leading the raid

into one of the Flat's most notorious neighborhoods.

Do you often come up against gangsters

who themselves carry weapons

and threaten your officers with those weapons?

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?

- Mongrel. -Yeah.

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.

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?

Wash powder money.

- Wash powder money? -Yeah.

- I wanna buy washing powder. -Sir, what are you out on parole for?

Murder.

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.

- 26. - 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.

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.

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?

- 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.

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.

- 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.

What can I expect in K-3?

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.

Who are these Number Gang members?

What will they expect of me?

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?

No.

-Not a gang member of any kind. - Not at all.

There are three main gangs here.

The 26s, the 27s, and the 28s.

There are certain...

...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.

- -

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.

- -

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.

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.

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. -

-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.