GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:
The Acting Minister of Police is right to be concerned. There is ‘No proper plan in Cape Town to deal with gang violence’.
More than a year since the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town signed a Cooperation Agreement with SAPS, the promised coordination, intelligence-sharing, and joint response to crime remain largely on paper. The failure to implement even the most basic provisions of this agreement is emblematic of a broader truth that the Western Cape does not have a policing problem alone, it has a governance problem.
Despite having the legislative mandates, the budget, and the authority to tackle the root causes of violent crime, the Western Cape Government continues to act as a frustrated bystander, outsourcing responsibility to SAPS while investing billions into its own police-lite programme, LEAP.
The Premier’s so-called Western Cape Safety Plan, launched in 2019 with the promise of halving the murder rate, has failed by every measurable standard. While gang violence rips through communities like Mfuleni and Mitchells Plain, the provincial government’s response has been little more than press conferences, slogans, and scapegoating.
The Numbers Don’t Lie. 81% of all murders in the province occur within the City of Cape Town. Gang-related murders continue to drive violence, making up 1 in 5 killings. Despite these statistics, the Premier and his Cabinet remain obsessed with “boots on the ground” while neglecting the plan’s own second pillar – crime prevention through addressing poverty, inequality, and broken urban environments.
When asked just weeks ago what socio-economic interventions had been implemented under the Safety Plan, the Premier had no clear answer because little has been done. The policing component has eclipsed the prevention component, and communities are paying the price.
The Western Cape’s call for the devolution of policing powers rings hollow when its own safety plan is crumbling under the weight of unfulfilled promises.
Devolution cannot undo a failure to deliver housing and public infrastructure in gang-ravaged communities, a refusal to invest meaningfully in youth employment, mental health, and addiction services or an unwillingness to co-develop solutions with communities, NGOs, and local leaders.
Minister Cachalia’s visit and listening campaign exposed what we already knew that communities are traumatised, terrified, and abandoned. But solutions will not be found in more visibility or more raids alone.
If the Western Cape Government is serious about tackling gangsterism, then it must stop using SAPS as a shield for its own shortcomings and start investing in people, not just uniforms. Until then, the body count will continue to rise, and so will the number of press statements from politicians desperate to shift the blame.
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