THE
GANGSTAR
STORY
Gangstar Café is a social enterprise of The Message Trust and was first launched in April 2017. It is the first Café that only employs ex-offenders in Cape Town and to our knowledge South Africa.
Coffee can be used to change lives and our desire is to see many more young people say “Gang is the past and Star is the future”
Our Cafés and training was a direct response to the challenges for ex-offenders to find employment once released from prison.
Youth unemployment in South Africa is the highest in the world, eight out of ten ex-offenders reoffend and a big reason for this is they cannot find meaningful work.
Through The Message Trust and Gangstar Café we provide job readiness, barista and job-shadowing training throughout the year. Providing skills training that empowers ex-offenders to work and become responsible citizens. Up to March 2021 only 7% of our beneficiaries who have gone through our programmes have reoffended.
Gangstar currently has three Café outlets in Mowbray, Durbanville and Philippi Village. Each Café provides on the job training that enables ex-offenders to graduate and find future employment.
Our vision is to open new cafés to provide more training and employment opportunities and launch our Roasting Academy in 2021.
