Clear Expectations Set for Gang Violence Inquiry

Statement by Lisa Schickerling MP – DA Spokesperson on Police:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the parliamentary inquiry into gang violence and organised crime, but we caution that this process must not become another talk shop without real accountability and measurable outcomes.

South Africans, particularly communities in the Western Cape, are living under siege from relentless gang violence. This inquiry must therefore move beyond broad assessments and deliver concrete answers on what is working, what is failing, and who must be held accountable.

The DA will be demanding clarity on several critical issues:

• The effectiveness of the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU), including whether its interventions are producing sustained reductions in murders and shootings, or merely temporary stabilisation in hotspot areas.
• The alarming gaps in data and performance measurement, which currently make it impossible to properly assess whether SAPS strategies are succeeding.
• The integrity of the AGU, including how SAPS is managing internal investigations and ensuring that both legitimate misconduct and malicious or retaliatory complaints are dealt with appropriately.
• The lack of focus on dismantling organised crime networks, including financial investigations, asset forfeiture, and targeting of gang leadership rather than low-level offenders.
• Whether sufficient resources, intelligence coordination, and prosecutorial support are in place to secure convictions, not just arrests.
• The extent to which SAPS is strengthening its working relationship with the National Prosecuting Authority to improve prosecution outcomes and secure convictions.
• The state of intelligence capacity, and whether it is adequate to support effective, intelligence-led policing within the scope of the inquiry.
• The role of the South African Revenue Service in targeting gang kingpins by disrupting the financial networks that sustain organised crime.
• The state of forensic capacity, including how delays in drug analysis and ballistic testing are being addressed to fast-track prosecutions.
• As well as lifestyle audits and polygraphs of all AGU members regularly.

Recent figures show activity, but not necessarily impact. Without clear evidence linking police operations to convictions, disrupted networks, and long-term reductions in violence, SAPS cannot claim success.

The DA will also push for greater transparency on how priority gang stations are identified, how often these are reviewed, and whether interventions are actually improving safety in affected communities.

This inquiry must ultimately answer one simple question: are we safer today than we were before these interventions were introduced?

If not, then government must be honest about failure and commit to a new, evidence-based strategy to defeat organised crime. We again emphasise the need for the expansion of policing powers to effectively tackle gang violence.

The people of South Africa deserve more than statistics they deserve safety, justice, and a police that works.