Today saw the release of the most recent report into crime statistics in South Africa, and with it the most damning evidence yet that the Western Cape has been abandoned by Police Minister Bheki Cele and national government.

The report covers the second quarter of the 2023/2024 financial year, which spans from July to September 2023. The report’s numbers are stark, with a 10.9% increase in murder since last quarter, and a 4.2% increase in contact crime.

The increase in murders has been driven by gang-related killings, many of which have involved multiple victims and followed a strikingly similar trend. In a recent parliamentary reply, SAPS disclosed that it is aware of links between several mass killings in the Western Cape, indicating the presence of organised crime. However, the national police service appears unable to follow these patterns and intervene, pointing to an apparent collapse of crime intelligence.

For those aware of SAPS’ chronic failure to allocate sufficient resources to the Western Cape, this is heartbreaking but unsurprising. For almost a decade, the Western Cape has lacked the necessary manpower, vehicles, and facilities to effectively fight crime – a situation national government has done little to resolve. The recently released 2023/2024 Police Needs and Priorities report paints a stark picture of a police service in crisis, with less than 19 000 SAPS members in the Western Cape, and a provincial vacancy rate of 12%. In some precincts, the police-to-population ratio is so high that one SAPS member may be responsible for the safety of more than a thousand residents.

Worse still, SAPS’ capacity to investigate and fight organised crime has been gutted during Cele’s tenure, with the number of detectives declining by 7.34% since 2018. This means that only 2 587 detectives remain in the Western Cape, with the consequence that only 37.78% of serious crime dockets are ever closed. Additionally, the Anti-Gang Unit – one of the most important measures against organised crime in the Western Cape – still lacks a specialised investigative unit, and still lacks the necessary numbers to conduct meaningful law enforcement.

Tragically, this latest increase goes some way to undoing recent gains made in making the Western Cape safer. Murder has seen a continuous decrease in the Western Cape over the last year, with the Department of Community Safety and Police Oversight’s targeted interventions delivering consistent and measurable results. However, as these most-recent statistics prove, a provincial government cannot cover for a failed national policing model forever, especially when it is not given the necessary resources to do so.

The upshot of these statistics is simple: Bheki Cele has failed the people of the Western Cape. The DA calls for his immediate resignation and an immediate commitment by the national government for the devolution of policing powers to the Western Cape.

 

Issued by Gillion Bosman, MPP - DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Community Safety