Statement by Lisa Schickerling MP – DA Spokesperson on Police:
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply shocked and saddened by reports that 157 children have been killed in gang crossfire on the Cape Flats over the past five years.
These are not just numbers; they are the stolen lives of innocent children trapped in violent battles they never chose.
This horror comes at a time when the most recent national crime statistics did not even report on violence against children, leaving the country without crucial information needed to protect vulnerable young people. At a moment when government should be doing more, it is revealing less.
Every child killed is a tragedy and it is utterly unacceptable that children continue to die while the top leadership of the police are fighting instead of fixing this crisis.
Communities across the Cape Flats continue to live under siege. While dedicated SAPS officers do all they can under crippling conditions, the national government continues to fail in its constitutional duty to protect South Africa’s children. The result is a generation growing up to the sound of gunfire instead of laughter.
Children should be able to walk to school, play outside and grow up without fear. Yet for thousands of families, childhood itself has become a battleground.
The DA, therefore, demands two urgent national interventions
- A fully resourced, intelligence-led national anti-gang strategy- This strategy must include measurable targets, firearm tracing, gang-network disruption, and prosecution-ready investigations. A critical component of this is the restoration of South Africa’s crime-intelligence capacity, which has deteriorated through years of instability, mismanagement and poor governance.
- Immediate devolution of key policing powers to capable provinces and cities- Provinces like the Western Cape and metros like the City of Cape Town must be granted operational control over anti-gang units, firearm enforcement, and hotspot crime-prevention deployments. The current centralised policing model is failing, and the consequences are measured in the lives of children who should have been protected.
South Africa cannot accept a future in which children are murdered on our streets while the SAPS remains silent or ineffective. Families deserve justice. Communities deserve peace. And these children deserved the chance to grow up.
The Democratic Alliance will continue to fight relentlessly for safer communities, accountability, and a policing system that protects our children rather than failing them.