GOOD Statement by Brett Herron ,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament
13 February 2025
The DA has led the governments of the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Province for going on 20 years, more than long enough to have had some positive impacts on rolling back the culture of gangsterism on the Cape Flats.
Yet the best that Western Cape MEC of Police Oversight and Community Safety Anroux Marais could come up with this week in response to another spate of gang-related killings was to say that she was “outraged”, and that guns were a major contributor to shooting deaths.
The Western Cape and City of Cape Town have spent Billions of Rands on an array of anti-crime software and hardware, and LEAP, which have, collectively, had no impact on crime statistics. This year, the province shed 2400 teacher posts because it chose to spend money it receives from the national treasury for education on continuing to fund its anti-crime initiatives over the next few years.
News24 reported yesterday that seven people had been killed in Cape Town in 12 hours, with police saying the crimes were mostly gang-related. The past two weeks have witnessed gang-related assassinations outside a court, a police station, and at a funeral in Ravensmead.
For millions of people who live on the Cape Flats, many in squalid conditions and poverty, where apartheid left them, the culture of gangsterism is a daily lived reality. MEC Marais should be outraged by these conditions, over which her political party has control, not just their product of violence.
Regardless of how many Billions of Rands the Province and City spend on anti-crime gadgets, the culture of gangsterism will remain intact until the conditions in which the people live are conducive to their development and “taking ownership of” their communities.
What we have is that, while people on the Cape Flats are left to stew, the City of Cape Town receives global accolades for its pristine beauty, cleanliness and hospitality – and the DA claims it’s running the place exceptionally well. The question is, how far can they stretch inequality before it snaps?
Deploying more, and better qualified, police would obviously help, neighbourhood watches do incredible work and should receive more support, and sometimes it has been necessary to call in the support of the army.
But developing a police state is not the solution to gang violence; the money would be better spent, with more sustainable results, on developing communities.
Premier Alan Winde and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis must explain to citizens what plans they have to fix the Cape Flats and begin to change the structure of the apartheid city.
Media enquiries: media@forgood.org.za