GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & City of Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
09 July 2026
The killing of seven people in a pair of mass shootings on the Cape Flats on Wednesday night once again gruesomely underlines the tale of two mutually exclusive Cape Towns: One that wins global awards as among the finest places on earth, and the other where living conditions and public safety are on a par with the worst and most dangerous ghettoes in the world.
The two separate worlds were deliberately engineered by the apartheid state and must be just as deliberately disassembled by the City of Cape Town and Western Cape governments.
Deploying the military and extra police are the equivalent of treating gaping wounds with sticky plasters. The cultures of gangsterism, violence, indignity and desperation are too entrenched to be scared away by boots on the ground.
It is noteworthy that last night’s brutality capped a week in which the DA-led City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government were harshly criticised for the slow pace of post-apartheid transformation by both the Constitutional Court (in the Tafelberg School matter) and the Public Protector.
Instead of blaming inadequate policing for lawlessness created by an evil spatial plan and fundamentally anti-social environments, or demanding extra policing powers for themselves, the City and Province are constitutionally obliged to develop policies and provide services to transform abnormal living environments and the abnormal society.
Instead of spending many millions of Rands on security walls to contain the ghettoes, the money should be spent developing environments conducive to human development.
The GOOD Party conveys its deepest sympathies to the families of the seven victims in last night’s attacks in Tafelsig and Philippi East.
We call on the City of Cape Town to stop throwing its hands in the air and begin the real environmental transformation of long-suffering communities, one at a time.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za