Gang violence to blame for a quarter of all Western Cape murders and attempted murders
· Citizen
Gang violence remained a prominent contributor to the Western Cape’s crime stats, although murder and attempted murder have shown an overall decline in line with national figures.
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Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile released the Western Cape’s crime stats for the fourth quarter of the last financial year.
While Thursday’s stats reflect cases reported between January and March this year, the next set of figures will reveal if the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) has made progress.
The window for Operation Prosper officially opened on 1 March, but SANDF boots did not hit the ground until much later that month.
Overall, there were 983 murder cases reported to police throughout the province in those three months, down 8%, or by 85 cases.
Western Cape murder stats
Gang initiations and gang-related murders totalled 225 across the Western Cape, with 92.8% of those from the Cape Town district.
Gang murders account for 23.2% of all murders in the province, and of the Western Cape’s six regions, 209 gang-related murders were recorded in Cape Town.
The other 16 cases came from three districts: one from the Garden Route, six from the Winelands and nine from the West Coast.
However, gang-related attempted murder cases were much higher in the Winelands, accounting for 122 cases, as opposed to Cape Town’s 66 cases or the Garden Route’s 44.
While not listed as gang-related, retaliation, revenge and punishment were cited as motives for a further 101 murders – an additional 10%.
Deputy President Paul Masahtile was on the ground this week, visiting officials and talking with members of the community to gauge sentiment.
He said Operation Prosper’s success would hinge on the cooperation of the community, as they had intricate knowledge of the gangs and their members.
“The police and the army are working with the community to ensure that they can identify the criminals so that they can arrest them.
‘This operation is intelligence-driven, and intelligence can only succeed when you work with the community,” Mashatile told the media.
Police under resourced
At the station in the Western Cape with the fifth-highest number of murders, a quarter of the vehicles needed for daily police activities were inactive.
Chair of the portfolio committee on police, Ian Cameron, paid a spot visit this week to the Philippi East police station to inspect its vehicle fleet.
He found only seven of the 26 vehicles designated for visible policing were operational, having recorded a similar situation several weeks ago during an earlier visit to the station.
“This is to serve a community of 250 000 people. What more must we do to resolve this?” stated Cameron.
Member of the police portfolio committee, Lisa Schickerling, welcomed this week the adoption of terms of reference for a parliamentary investigation into gang violence and organised crime.
Among other points, the investigation will examine the growth of organised crime nodes on the outskirts of Cape Town.
Additionally, it will investigate whether specialised gang and organised crime units are properly staffed and resourced to address the issues they were intended to address.
“This investigation presents an important opportunity for Parliament to exercise meaningful oversight, identify operational shortcomings, and ensure that law enforcement structures are properly equipped and coordinated to protect vulnerable communities,” stated Schickerling on Thursday.