Communities and experts back City's call for policing powers

Recent crime statistics have revealed a troubling rise in violent incidents within Cape Flats communities, leading residents to urgently demand government intervention. Local leaders have described the situation as untenable, with families living in constant fear.

An alarming jump of nine percent in the murder rate in the Western Cape and a shocking 91 percent of gang-related crimes in South Africa during the first half of the financial year has residents living in constant fear.

Hotspots recorded spikes in murder, attempted murder and extortion-linked cases, with police stations like Nyanga, Delft, Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha appearing in the country’s top 30. 

The City of Cape Town and Western Cape Government believe devolving policing powers to local authorities could help curb the crisis, national government has yet to act.

In Delft, the station recorded a 13.2 percent increase in crime detection as a result of police action from July 2025 to September 2025 compared to July 2024 to September 2024.

Wesbank Community Policing Forum (CPF) spokesperson Mvano Magula said: “We appreciate what the City is trying to do, but five Metro officers are not enough to deal with the current situation."

The area which falls under Delft is among the province’s worst-performing stations, yet policing resources remain thin and visible patrols inconsistent. A promised mobile police station is only expected to arrive in December.

The City wants investigative powers for gang violence, firearm offences, extortion and drug trafficking, as well as the authority to run crime intelligence and forensic firearm-testing facilities, all functions controlled by SAPS.

In a parliamentary question, DA MP Nicholas Gotsell pressed Deputy President Paul Mashatile on why the national executive had not taken up the City’s proposal. 

Gotsell said: “Over 400 people were murdered in the Western Cape in October, [two weeks ago,] 39 people were murdered on the Cape Flats; Yet, the government still refuses to expand policing powers to enable the City’s offer to deploy Metro Police to help SAPS with investigative and intelligence capacity in the City."

Mashatile vowed to engage with the National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJoints) to explore tapping into the City of Cape Town's intelligence capability to strengthen the fight against gang violence. 

Criminologist expert Dr Jean Redpath said that the biggest structural reasons SAPS struggles to police areas like the Cape Flats effectively is due to the formula to allocate police resources,

Redpath explained: “Instead of 80 or 90 percent of people reporting crime, 30 to 40 percent report crime. The crime data is used in the formula to allocate resources. So if an area has a low reporting rate, then it’s actually going to end up with low resources on a per person basis.”

She added that following the crime stats being released, most areas in the province and Cape Town have had a bad increase in murder, however in areas where LEAP officers are deployed were somewhat better off.

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