GOOD Statement by Siyabulela Mamkeli,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
11 March 2026
The recent statement by Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia confirms what many residents and safety experts have been saying for months, infrastructure alone cannot replace policing or address the root causes of violent crime.
While restricting pedestrian access to highways may reduce some opportunistic incidents, a wall along the N2 will not address organised criminal activity, firearm-related offences, gang violence or the broader social conditions that drive crime in surrounding communities.
The real concern raised by the latest developments is not only the effectiveness of the wall, but whether the project has followed proper governance processes.
Responses in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature have confirmed that the Western Cape Department of Infrastructure was not formally engaged in the planning of the proposed wall, despite parts of the N2 falling under provincial jurisdiction.
SANRAL has also indicated that it was not consulted regarding sections of the road network under its authority.
This raises serious questions about how a project of this magnitude reportedly costing more than R100 million could be publicly announced before the necessary intergovernmental planning and approvals were secured.
Public safety cannot be reduced to symbolic infrastructure or political messaging. Crime along the N2 corridor is linked to deeper challenges including poverty, gang activity, illegal firearms and limited policing capacity.
Addressing these issues requires coordinated policing, effective investigations, community safety programmes and long-term social investment.
Residents deserve solutions that are properly planned, evidence-based and aligned with the law.
The current debate should therefore not be about defending political positions, but about ensuring that public resources are used responsibly and that safety interventions are implemented in a manner that is lawful, transparent and effective.
This proposal appears to be a reaction to the recent incident on Jakes Gerwel Drive, rather than the result of a properly planned and coordinated safety intervention involving all spheres of government.
Also, you don’t announce building a wall and then go to the community for public engagement, that’s a rubber-stamping exercise.
Cape Town’s residents deserve real safety strategies and not political spin.
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