GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, Unite for Change Leadership Council Member and GOOD Secretary-General:
The GOOD Party is calling for urgent accountability as the gap between government “frameworks” and the bloody reality on the streets of Cape Town continues to widen. In the last fortnight alone, 84 people were murdered, yet only two arrests were made. This represents a staggering failure of the criminal justice system and a betrayal of our most vulnerable communities.
In August 2024, the three spheres of government, national, provincial and local, signed a much-publicised Cooperation Agreement aimed at integrating resources and intelligence to combat crime. Eighteen months later, those promises of “joint planning” and “coordinated action” have failed to translate into safety on the ground.
Instead of a safer city, violent crime continues to surge, particularly in poorer communities where gangsters operate with near impunity. Even the Anti-Gang Unit appears largely reactive, often deployed only after lives have already been lost.
At the heart of this failure is a system of what can only be described as “policing apartheid”, where resources are systematically skewed in favour of wealthy suburbs at the expense of working-class and township communities.
Data provided by the Western Cape MEC for Police Oversight, Anroux Marais, in response to parliamentary questions from GOOD, confirms this stark inequality.
While the provincial average is one police officer for every 435 residents, the most dangerous precincts are severely under-resourced:
- Gugulethu: 1 officer for every 962 residents
- Delft and Harare: More than 1 officer for every 800 residents
- Wealthier suburbs: Areas such as Wynberg (1:238) and Rondebosch (1:381) enjoy nearly triple the level of policing
This inequality is not accidental. MEC Marais has admitted that there is “no plan” to correct these imbalances, yet the outcome is clear: a resident of Gugulethu has less than half the police protection of someone living in Wynberg. This form of discrimination was condemned by the Equality Court in 2018, and yet in 2026 the poor are still treated as second-class citizens whose lives matter less.
The August 2024 Cooperation Agreement acknowledges that while policing is a national competence, crime prevention is a shared responsibility. It commits SAPS to joint planning, the Western Cape Government to oversight and violence-prevention programmes, and the City of Cape Town to support through municipal law enforcement and technology such as CCTV.
However, an agreement is only as effective as its implementation. The crisis is not simply a shortage of police, but a failure to deploy available resources where the need is most urgent. Its success depends entirely on concrete, coordinated action, and that action is currently absent.
Communities living under daily siege from violent crime cannot survive on paperwork and promises alone.
The GOOD Party therefore calls on all signatories to the 2024 Cooperation Agreement to move beyond bureaucratic process and ensure that:
- Implementation plans are finalised and made public immediately
- Clear responsibilities are assigned and tracked to prevent ongoing finger-pointing between spheres of government
- Resources are urgently reallocated to ensure visible, sustained and intelligence-led policing in the most affected areas
- Regular, transparent reporting is provided so communities can assess the real impact, or failure, of this cooperation
Safety cannot remain a matter of frameworks and forums. Our people deserve to feel the impact of government cooperation where it matters most: in their streets, their homes and their communities.
GOOD Civic Responsibility: GOOD encourages citizens to take an active role in their communities.
Take Away
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