Dear Editor
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is deeply disturbed by the wave of violent crime that continues to engulf communities across the Western Cape. We share the anger, fear, and frustration of residents who feel abandoned by a policing system that has lost control. The DA is taking this fight up because we refuse to accept that violent crime should be the daily reality of law-abiding South Africans.
While we welcome Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia’s commitment to a National Anti-Gang Strategy and the fact that it is being rolled out in Gauteng, the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, and KwaZulu-Natal, the scale and immediacy of the Western Cape crisis demand urgent, decisive action now.
In the past 72 hours alone, nearly 30 people have been murdered on the Cape Flats. These killings are not isolated incidents, they are symptomatic of a policing and intelligence system that has collapsed, leaving communities exposed to organised criminal rule.
Nowhere is this national failure more visible than in the Western Cape, where gang violence, extortion networks, kidnappings, and targeted assassinations have turned neighbourhoods into war zones.
The recent Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Inquiry laid bare the rot within SAPS Crime Intelligence, a unit paralysed by internal factional battles, leadership failures, compromised personnel, and a near-total inability to gather actionable intelligence.
Instead of infiltrating criminal networks, Crime Intelligence has been infiltrated by dysfunction. This breakdown directly enables the brazen killings now devastating communities.
Recent incidents illustrate the scale of brutality and violence:
- Khayelitsha: A 22-year-old woman was raped, murdered, and dumped near a communal toilet.
- Fisantekraal: Five young men were shot and wounded in a drive-by attack; the assailants remain at large.
While the DA supports Minister Cachalia’s initiative, the urgency of the Western Cape crisis demands that national plans be matched by immediate operational capabilities. The DA reiterates its long-standing call for the devolution of policing powers to capable metros such as the City of Cape Town.
The City’s Metro Police are among the few remaining trusted and functional law-enforcement structures in the province. They are already on the frontlines, but without the legal powers to investigate gang-related gun crime, conduct ballistic testing, or gather intelligence on organised criminal networks, their ability to respond remains constrained.
The DA therefore calls for the immediate authorisation for the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police to assume expanded policing powers so they can act decisively against gang violence and restore safety to communities abandoned by SAPS.
The time for bureaucratic delays is over. Every day of inaction costs more lives.
Regards
Ian Cameron MP
DA Deputy Spokesperson on Police