GANGS

The GOOD Party is devastated by the spate of gang-related shootings in Mitchell’s Plain, which left five people dead and seven more injured across multiple locations. Our hearts go out to the families mourning loved ones, and to the communities once again living in fear. This is not the first tragedy of its kind, and heartbreakingly, it will not be the last, unless our government at all levels finds the courage to face the truth that this is not just a policing crisis, this is a planning, poverty, and inequality crisis.

The numbers tell a grim story, 25,423 people lost their lives in South Africa between April 2024 and March 2025. This is a tragedy, one that policymakers can’t spin, downplay, or hide behind minor percentage decreases. In the Western Cape, where the province has robbed the education and healthcare budgets to fund a safety plan, a chilling 4,467 murders were recorded in the 2024/2025 financial year. And although this is a decrease of 1.7% from the previous financial year, it is the second-highest annual toll in the past six years. Any celebration over a marginal decrease is not just premature, it’s deeply offensive to the communities still mourning.

Between them, the Western Cape Provincial Government and the City of Cape Town have no plan to address a deeply ingrained culture of gangsterism. They regard gangsterism as a law-enforcement matter, and take no responsibility for improving the conditions in which most residents live, that breed crime.