Violent Crime in Cloetesville

GOOD Statement by Robin Hendrikse, GOOD Stellenbosch Municipality Councillor:

Despite numerous community-led efforts, crime awareness campaigns, and marches against violence in Cloetesville and the broader Stellenbosch, our communities are facing a frightening escalation in violent crime. The situation is no longer tolerable.

The recent incidents where two minor children aged four and seven, were wounded and another, a 14-year-old was murdered in suspected gang-related incidents are a tragic reminder of the daily dangers faced by ordinary families. Daylight gang shootings, house robberies, armed muggings of workers on their way to work, and the extortion of residents along their normal travel routes have become disturbingly common, despite repeated promises from South African Police Service (SAPS) of effective intervention strategies.

While we acknowledge that crime prevention is primarily a SAPS competency, it is deeply dishonest to ignore the root causes of crime. Violent crime does not arise in a vacuum. It is driven by deepening poverty, chronic unemployment, and the systematic neglect of vulnerable communities, especially in working-class coloured neighbourhoods.

Access to meaningful job opportunities for semi-skilled and unskilled parents is shrinking rapidly. Families are increasingly forced into dependence on social grants, while young people are left with no viable future. This desperation feeds gangsterism, drug abuse, school dropout rates, and cycles of violence.

We are witnessing boys being absorbed into criminal networks and drug culture, while young girls are exposed to abuse, addiction, and early pregnancies. These are not moral failures; they are the predictable outcomes of political neglect.

It is deeply concerning that the Western Cape leadership continues to promote a policing-heavy approach while stripping funding from social development and education. You cannot police poverty out of existence. You cannot arrest inequality. All that results in is the criminalisation of our youth and the destruction of their prospects.

Most alarming is the growing trend of primary school teachers seeking protection orders against learners, resulting in children being barred from entering their own schools. This reflects the collapse of psychosocial support structures and the erosion of social services that should be protecting both educators and children.

GOOD’s Call to Action: Real Solutions for the Western Cape

The GOOD Party believes that crime can only be reduced through a balanced, people-centred approach that addresses both safety and socio-economic development.

We call for:

1. Targeted Job Creation
   Skills-based public employment programmes focused on youth and parents in high-crime areas.
2. After-School and Youth Development Programmes
   Safe spaces, sports, arts, and skills hubs to keep children engaged, supported, and exposed to positive role models.
3. Restoration of Social Services Funding
   Reinvestment in social workers, family counsellors, school psychologists and substance-abuse programmes.
4. Gang Exit and Rehabilitation Programmes
   Funded, structured interventions to help young people leave gangs safely and rebuild their lives.
5. Community-Based Policing Partnerships
   Strengthened CPFs and neighbourhood safety initiatives built on trust, not fear.
6. School Retention and Support Strategies
   Early-intervention programmes to prevent school dropouts and provide tutoring, counselling, and transport support.
7. Integrated Provincial Safety Plan

Our communities deserve dignity, opportunity and safety, not empty promises and militarised responses.

The people of Cloetesville and the Western Cape do not need more public relations exercises. They need real leadership, real investment, and real hope.

GOOD Manifesto on Skills Training: Emphasizing the importance of skills training for the workforce.

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