GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament:
Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has walked back his recent descriptions of a robust public participation process informing the province’s Safety Plan, confessing in a written reply to parliamentary questions that the consultations he’d referred to “were not publicly advertised”.
On 26 February 2026, in the Debate on the State of the Province Address, Winde suggested that anyone questioning the depth of the Safety Plan public participation process was out of touch with communities. The plan had been “taken to the public in Nyanga” and had been “taken to the community in Mitchell’s Plain”, he said.
In his written replies to my follow-up questions, Winde conceded that the meetings were “limited to community level safety structures”.
“The Western Cape Safety Plan engagements were designed and targeted to specific safety stakeholders in the District Municipalities and Policing Sub-Districts in the City of Cape Town. These engagements were not publicly advertised,” the Premier said.
To be clear, while it is essential to include “specific public stakeholders” in public participation processes, speaking only to them and not to others does not constitute public consultation.
Many of these stakeholders are deeply committed to safety in their communities. By carefully curating the guest list to avoid dissent, criticism and accountability, however, the Province uses its invitees to create the illusion of an open process. The views and voices of people living in daily fear of violence were excluded from the room. That’s not public participation; it’s calculated deception.
The Western Cape Legislature, and by implication its citizens, are being asked to trust and fund a plan that‘s already cost Billions of Rands, and to which Billions more have been allocated, that has never been subjected to real public scrutiny – sold by a Premier who uses selective engagement as subterfuge for democratic legitimacy.
If the Premier ran a proper public consultation process, he’d have to account for the dichotomy of steadily increasing violent crime at the same time as he steadily increases spending supposedly fighting crime. He’d have to account for not fixing social environments that are conducive to gangsterism and crime. And he’d have to account for failing to develop a coherent strategy to control substance abuse and gang recruitment.
The Premier is in a quandary. It’s difficult to keep repeating the DA mantra that it can’t curb gangsterism because policing is a national function, while at the same time accounting for the lack of bang for the Province’s billions of Bucks in expenditure on its Safety Plan.
Far easier to avoid these thorny issues by inviting a handpicked group of loyal friends and colleagues for tea behind closed doors and calling it a public consultation.
The army has been deployed on the Cape Flats precisely because citizens’ cries for safety go unheard in Wale Street.
The soldiers won’t stay forever, but they’ll likely soon be back if the Province can’t come up with more meaningful strategies than pretending to engage with the people.
GOOD Manifesto on Responsible Citizenship: Promoting responsible citizenship and civic participation.
Intimidating Presence
Fun South African Fact: For an unforgettable bucket-list activity, search for the famous Big 5 (lion, leopard, elephant, rhino and buffalo) on safari in one of South Africa’s national parks or private game reserves. A South African safari is an experience like no other!
Acid Gosling
Laaitie – a young male [light-e] This term is used to describe a male in his teens or early twenties.