A controversial gang violence intervention programme will start operating in Manenberg on Wednesday despite criticism by community leaders in the Cape Flats township.Operation Ceasefire, which has been running a pilot project in Hanover Park since 2013, will send four former gangsters-turned-"violence-interrupters" into Manenberg, where 21 people have died in gang-related murders in the past month.The Hanover Park quartet will use their knowledge of gang culture to speak to gunmen in an attempt to defuse potentially violent situations.They will also recruit interrupters who will be trained to work in the community, said Operation Ceasefire director Craven Engel.Given a 31% drop in murders during the Hanover Park pilot compared with the preceding three years, "things look positive in Manenberg", said Engel.The City of Cape Town, Operation Ceasefire's main funder, was considering integrating it into a 2017 enforcement strategy for the five worst gang hotspots, said mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith.Operation Ceasefire has been controversial since its early days in Chicago, where it was founded. Now, Manenberg's community policing forum and safety forum have questioned its effectiveness.It had little effect on other violent crimes such as robberies, stabbings and hijackings, said community policing forum spokesman Llewellyn Adams. Safety forum chairman Roegshanda Pascoe said: "The hospital in Hanover Park is full like Pollsmoor Prison."Adams and Pascoe said Operation Ceasefire funding could go to existing organisations in Manenberg. "They use ex-gangsters, but they are still involved in gangsterism. In the end, gangsters are getting money that can be used in a more positive way," said Adams.Operation Ceasefire's three-year pilot cost R6.9-million.Smith would not say how much its expansion would cost.Engel said he understood community resistance, but Operation Ceasefire had been "tailored" to the Cape Flats context.Furthermore, no violence interrupter or outreach worker had returned to gangsterism."If you reduce violence, investment will come in, and there will be opportunity for the rest of the community as well," he said...