GOOD Speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of the Western Cape Parliament
04 September 2025
*NOTE TO EDITORS: This speech was delivered in the Western Cape Provincial Parliament during the Subject for discussion: Condemning the recent surge in shootings in the Western Cape and holding SAPS and Parole Board accountable for failing to protect citizens.
Speaker,
The Western Cape Government has the mandate and the capacity to change the living conditions that are the root causes of violent crime. This government must use its powers, mandates and resources more effectively, instead of dabbling in policing and then complaining about how poor policing is.
There are good people in every organization, but recent developments regarding SAPS have shown the level of dysfunction at the heart of policing in South Africa.
But our violent crime problem is not as a result of poor policing alone, nor is it as a result of under-resourced policing alone. This is because policing alone cannot prevent crime.
The Premier introduced the Western Cape Safety Plan in 2019 as a comprehensive plan to reduce and prevent crime. The crime reduction component was to increase policing resources – the “boots on the ground” – while the crime prevention component was a favourite buzz phrase – “a whole of society approach” – with every Minister having specific interventions aimed at addressing the root causes of crime.
Two weeks ago, when I asked the Premier what crime prevention interventions had been implemented he was unable to answer – he cited examples of what is in the Safety Plan but he couldn’t say what had actually been done. Had I asked him about the crime reduction programme – the boots on the ground – he would have easily rattled off how many LEAP officers have been deployed.
This is because the Safety Plan has prioritized policing over prevention.
This means that this government has deprioritized investing in the environmental and socio-economic conditions that are conducive to violent crime.
Sadly, the emphasis on the “boots on the ground” has failed to show the results we were promised.
Contact and violent crime, including the plan’s own measurement of effectiveness – being the murder rate – has increased since the plan was implemented. The Premier has repeatedly asked us to read independent studies on the effectiveness of the Safety Plan.
The same organisations have more recently published studies that address crime prevention. They conclude, what we keep saying, that there is a strong association between violence and poverty. In areas where incomes are low and unemployment high, levels of violence are also high.