Devolution Isn’t a Cure, It’s a Distraction

GOOD Statement by Brett Herron , GOOD Secretary General & Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament:

27 May 2025: The Western Cape Government has once again turned to its favourite scapegoat, National Government, calling for the devolution of policing powers as if that alone will put an end to the bloodshed on our streets. This latest call comes in the wake of another tragic quarter of crime data that paints a clear picture that the gangsters remain in charge, and the Western Cape Government is still out of ideas.

From January to March 2025, 1,068 people were murdered in the Western Cape. While the province recorded a 4% decline from the same quarter last year, it shows that 81% of all murders in the province occur within the City of Cape Town alone.

In Philippi East, murders soared from 36 to 59 compared to the same quarter in the previous financial year. Gang-related killings continue to drive the violence, accounting for 19.6% of all murders and 25.7% of attempted murders in the province. These are not isolated statistics. They are the predictable outcomes of systemic failure. A failure to invest in people and communities, and an over-reliance on law enforcement as a silver bullet.

While Premier Alan Winde blames the national government and beats the tired drum of devolution, the billions poured into the LEAP programme have failed to produce meaningful results. The so-called “Western Cape Safety Plan” has not come close to halving the murder rate. Instead, we’ve seen targeted hotspots like Delft, Mfuleni, and Kraaifontein consistently topping the national murder and assault charts, year after year.

In fact, the number of murders in the Western Cape has risen under the first 5 years of the Safety Plan:

• 2019/20 – 3,975 Murders
• 2020/21 – 3,848 Murders
• 2021/22 – 4,109 Murders
• 2022/23 – 4,150 Murders
• 2023/24 – 4,544 Murders

In the Fourth Quarter, Philippi East, five people were found burned and shot, a suspected extortion-related massacre. In Samora Machel, three people were executed in the street. These aren’t “challenges”; they’re atrocities. And they’re happening on the watch of a provincial government that refuses to acknowledge that policing alone cannot undo decades of inequality, segregation, and economic exclusion.

We do not oppose decentralisation. There is a strong argument to be made for bringing decision-making closer to the ground. But the idea that devolution will fix gangsterism, without first fixing the poverty, unemployment, and apartheid spatial planning that gang culture feeds on, is dangerous political theatre.

The Western Cape has a gang problem, but it also has a governance problem. Leadership is about creating conditions in which crime has no space to grow, using the power you have before calling for more. Until that happens, another quarter will pass, another set of names will be added to the body count, and the politicians will hold another press conference to shift the blame.

The Western Cape needs systemic change and that starts with taking responsibility.

GOOD Manifesto on Public Participation: Encouraging public participation in decision-making processes.

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