STATS MASK GANG ISSUE - The Kaapse murder rate might be down, but attempted murders have gone up

THE official murder rate innie Kaap may have fallen, but the reality on the Cape Flats is that people are still living in fear. 

Friday’s announcement of the fourth quarter crime statistics showed a 3.8 percent drop in killings, but ‘daily shootings’ continue to plague Western Cape communities. 

The province recorded 1 157 murders between 1 October and 31 December 2025 — 41 fewer than during the same period last year, averaging about 12 killings a day. 

However, attempted murders increased by 5.43 percent over the quarter.

Fight Against Crime South Africa (Facsa) spokesperson Jay Jay Idel said while any reduction in violence is welcome, the province’s own statement acknowledges that gang violence, attempted murder, and firearm-related crime continue to place immense pressure on communities. This is where the contradiction lies.

Idel said: “The Western Cape Government maintains that where it intervenes, murder rates decline. Yet those same communities remain trapped in cycles of gang recruitment, poverty and violence. The brutal truth is this: statistics don’t bury children, bullets do.

“The continued strength of gangsterism raises serious questions about whether provincial policies have meaningfully addressed the root causes, or whether the focus has remained on policing while the social vacuum that feeds gangs remains untouched.”

Idel said policing alone cannot solve a problem created by social and economic failure. 

He added: “Until provincial interventions begin to meaningfully disrupt the conditions that allow gangsterism to thrive, SAPS will remain locked in a reactive battle, and communities will continue to pay the price.”

Bishop Lavis Crime Prevention Forum chairman Graham Lindhorst said: “Our view is that even though there’s a decrease, it is common knowledge that the Western Cape has shown a much lesser decrease amongst the other provinces.

“And it tells you that in the Western Cape, we have a problem. That’s why we sit with 10 policing precincts, which are in the top 30, now for a very long time. 

“And it’s consistently the same precincts, number one, number two, it is policing precincts that are in our poorest of the poor areas.”