GOOD Speech by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:
Note to editor: This speech was delivered by GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament Brett Herron during today’s interpellation debate on the Western Cape Safety Plan review
490 gang-related murders in just six months.
That is nearly three murders every single day. Or, to put it plainly: one gang-related killing every eight hours.
We cannot allow ourselves to grow numb to these numbers.
They are not abstract. They represent lives lost, families torn apart, and communities living under siege.
Yet, yesterday, when I sat down to hear the so-called review of the Safety Plan, I did not hear urgency. I did not hear honesty. I did not hear accountability.
The review we were promised did not happen. It was a disgrace. A profound letdown.
A review, by definition, means assessing whether a plan has worked, what has failed, and what must change.
It means testing claims against evidence, admitting shortcomings, and facing hard truths.
But nothing of the sort happened. The evidence is clear.
The central promise of the 2019 Safety Plan was to reduce the murder rate by 50% over ten years.
After five years, we should already be seeing the results. But murder rates remain stubbornly high and even the draft Safety Plan 2.0 includes a chart showing the actual number of murders has increased over the last five years.
In the original safety plan, there was mention of the Bavarian model, and its approach to collecting data, analysing patterns, targeting interventions where they can have the most impact. In other words, evidence-based policing.
No evidence-based policing guided the last five years of the safety plan. Outcomes were never evaluated, and lessons were never learned.
And I know this because we are now left with a plan that has no concrete objectives.
And the only thing that has seemingly changed is the abandonment of that original aim.
The Premier said it is difficult to set targets and objectives, yet we must hold people accountable to them.
Yes, it can be difficult, but your Safety Plan set the target: a 50% reduction. We didn’t impose it on you. So, we must hold you accountable for failing to meet it.
A safety plan is not a box-ticking exercise. It must be a living, breathing framework, constantly monitored, adjusted, and evaluated.
490 murders in six months, Honourable Members. That is the price of inaction. And it is far too high.
The draft Safety Plan 2.0 was borne out of failures but did not address them.
Safety Plan 2.0 claims to involve multiple departments. But have we forgotten about the “safety priorities” of the original plan?
Because as far as I can tell, this is not just a failure resting on the shoulders of one department. It is a systemic failure, a failure of this government as a whole.
Where is the Minister of Education?
Safety is not only about policing. It is about keeping children in schools that are safe, properly resourced, and free from the recruitment pipelines of gangs.
What has been done to strengthen after-school programmes, to expand psychosocial support, to give learners real alternatives to the streets?
Empty promises do not protect our children.
Where is the Minister of Social Development?
Because no child is born a gangster. They are shaped by poverty, by hunger, by the collapse of family support systems.
What has been done to scale up interventions that reach vulnerable youth before gangs do? Where is the safety net that prevents despair from hardening into violence?
Where is the Minister of Mobility?
Because when learners are forced to walk long, dangerous routes through gang territories just to get to school, we cannot pretend transport is not a safety issue.
And, where is the Minister of Infrastructure? Because spatial justice matters.
When communities are left without dignified housing, abandoned public spaces, and decaying basic services, the ground is fertile for gangs to control, exploit, and recruit.
Infrastructure is not only about bricks and mortar.
It is about dignity, belonging, and reclaiming space from criminal power.
Safety Plan 2.0 hides behind interdepartmental language, but the draft plan fails to turn coordination into action.
GOOD Transport: The party supports improvements in public transport infrastructure.
Arsenic Coo
Fun South African Fact: The waters surrounding the 2,500km long coastline are teeming with life. You’ll find great white sharks, African penguins, dolphins and much much more in South Africa’s oceans. Many travellers visit the coast to watch the annual whale migrations. In Hermanus, in the Western Cape, you can see hundreds of whales from June to late November. Simon’s Town, another coastal Western Cape town, is home to Boulder’s Beach. Here you can swim alongside colonies of African Penguins!
Blue Despair
Gogga – bug [ch-o-cha] The ‘g’ is pronounced as ‘ch’ in the back of the throat (think Scottish “Loch”) and is used to describe a bug or insect.