People Against Gangsterism and Drugs, formed in Cape Town in the mid-1990s as a community group to combat the very real problem of criminal gangs. It rapidly degenerated into vigilantism, however, with a series of increasingly violent protests culminating in the lynching of gang leader Rashaad Staggie. Senior members of the organisation have been charged with murder, public violence, intimidation, attempted murder, unlawful possession of firearms, extortion and conspiracy to murder. Pagad, or a splinter group, has been rumoured to be behind a spate of bombings since mid-1998.