Dude. I don't have to watch any South African movies (gangster related or other). I live here. Born and bred. And proud of it. And I take more than just a passing interest in our drug trade and culture.
I'm not banging on at you (specifically) by the way.
And you are right about the Cape Flats and the gangs and the gang controlled Mandrax trade. To a point anyway. And maybe somebody upon "initiation" will need to use to calm their nerves. But after that it's plain sailing. Unless it's just their DOC of course.
And it's use is not restricted only to the poor and destitute I assure you (I'm surprised my fellow countryman didn't rip you a new one for posting that)!
What is commonplace here and used PRIOR to committing crimes (of the type you're thinking of) is what's called "Tik" (which is basically Crystal Meth. but sometimes of rather dubious quality) and maybe a White Pipe after for comedown. But very little to do with trauma is my point.
And we have something else going around that's fucking up those communities and it's something called "Nyaope" (which is essentially a cocktail of shit smack, weed, and antiretroviral drugs) (we're nothing if not innovative here that's for sure)!
But alcohol and weed are, and will always be, top of the pops here. Big boozers here lemme tell ya!

And weed has just always been around i.e. it's just legal now is all.
Interestingly enough: the prevalence of drug use in South Africa as a whole and on balance, while it is on the increase, is nothing to write home about. Sure there are certain pockets (Cape Flats being one of them) where drug use is more prevalent (but that could be said about just about any country in the world). We're pretty hard core violent though. More people died (over 8 000) in the first quarter of this year from violent crime than died in the entire EU of drug overdoses in 2019 (that's their latest data available unfortunately). Third most dangerous country on the planet 2020/2021 (in terms of violent crime and murder). That's quite something if you consider the competition!

We even beat Colombia! And no I don't hang my head in shame. It's a part of our makeup. Ask my countryman
@Coffeeshroom. He'll back me up on this! :coffee: But then our police don't take shit either. So it's all good.
Anyway. Just be careful what you read/see/hear is all I'm saying. Fuck me. To the uninformed and based on all the shit you see in the media and in movies: any person could be excused for concluding that half of the USA and the EU are dying from Fentanyl overdoses! It's fallacy. And the same reason why most of the world thinks that the Russians are full of shit and that President Putin is the Devil incarnate!