DANGEROUS MINDS - Cops claim Cape gangs are getting younger and becoming fearless

THE South African Police Service (SAPS) says Cape gangs are becoming “younger, more dangerous, daring, and fearless” as they look to come up with a plan to combat gun violence on the Cape Flats.

Following an admission by the Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, that the South African Police Service (SAPS) is not adequately equipped to deal with the crisis last week, police copped a lot of flak from the public and politicians. 

Executive Mayor of Cape Town, Geordin Hill-Lewis, said the minister’s comments confirmed what communities in gang-affected areas have long experienced: an overstretched and under-resourced police service.

According to the latest SAPS crime statistics for July to September 2025, the Western Cape recorded 1 160 murders, which was a 9.1 percent increase compared with the same period in the previous year.

Firearms were involved in 60.6 percent of these murder cases, and many occurred in public places such as streets and open areas.

Over the first six months of the 2025/26 financial year, the province recorded about 2 308 murders, already 51.6  percent of the total murders from the entire previous year, underlining how rapidly the violence was escalating.

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) provincial secretary Mluleki Mbhele added: "Visible policing is essential, vehicles must be procured, detectives must be employed and properly capacitated to deal with case dockets in preparation for court.”

But SAPS Western Cape spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa has hit back, explaining that they have developed and are currently implementing a Gang Stabilisation Plan at identified hotspots across the province.

She said: “The plan combines intelligence-driven operations, including lockdowns, vehicle checkpoints, raids, disruptive actions, and takedown operations, targeting crime generators such as illegal firearms, ammunition, and drugs.”

Armed with the provincial Gang Stabilisation Plan, Brigadier Potelwa stated that the SAPS WC has successfully apprehended key gang leaders. Their cases are currently before courts and the arrested remain in custody.

But due to this vacuum of power, she said: “Gang members are becoming younger, more dangerous, daring, and fearless. There can never be enough resources to police communities, but we continue to replenish human resources lost through attrition.”

"I do not believe we are currently in a position to defeat gang violence in the Western Cape. The scale and intensity of organised crime here have outpaced the resources and capacity available to SAPS," said Cachalia, on Wednesday during a crime-focused media briefing at Gqeberha City Hall in Nelson Mandela Bay, Eastern Cape.