Co-located with A-OSH EXPO, Facilities Management Expo, and Firexpo, the event created a vibrant platform where professionals discovered, compared, and connected around the solutions needed for safer workplaces and communities, the organisers said.

“Securex Cape Town has proved that the Western Cape deserves a dedicated platform for safety and security. The energy on the show floor was exceptional, with exhibitors and visitors alike seeing the value of having this event in Cape Town. We welcomed over 2 000 industry professionals to the event, a very promising start. This is only the beginning; we’re looking forward to building on this success,” said Mark Anderson, Portfolio Director at Montgomery Group Africa.

End-to-end offerings

Cape Town and the Western Cape face distinctive challenges, from the rising demand for estate security, to the operational strain at ports, to the impact of cyber threats on supply chains. Securex South Africa Cape Town brought together suppliers offering surveillance, intrusion detection, cloud-based access control, and integrated perimeter solutions to help organisations mitigate these risks. Demonstrations and discussions focused on practical implementation, ensuring visitors could picture how these tools might work in their own environments.

“With all four shows under one roof, attendees gained a complete view of how security integrates with occupational health and safety, fire protection, and facilities management, for example, how linking fire detection with access control creates greater resilience than siloed approaches,” said Anderson.

This connected approach encouraged cross-sector conversations: estate managers considering OHS implications, or logistics operators exploring how fire safety supports continuity planning. The holistic view of risk was one of the most valued aspects of the event, organisers said.

“The engagement at the event was a winning feature, with estate managers, facilities operators, manufacturing leaders, and logistics professionals connecting face-to-face with solution providers, comparing technologies side by side, and discussing the long-term strategies needed to protect people and property,” said Anderson.

Praise for Securex Cape Town

Exhibitors praised the opportunity to reach Cape-based decision-makers, while visitors highlighted the convenience of finding global and local suppliers in one hall. Together, this feedback reinforces the importance of Securex South Africa Cape Town in strengthening the regional security landscape, according to the organisers.

“We recently revamped our website and, interestingly, our analytics show that 50% of the enquiries come from Cape Town. We therefore felt this was an opportune time to increase brand awareness in the region with a stand at Securex Cape. We are not only hoping to grow our franchisee base in the Western Cape, but by having a physical presence at the expo, we feel that we have a better chance of reaching potential customers who are swamped with the ‘noise’ on social media. The visitors we have spoken to are tech-savvy and keen to find out more about our solutions,” said Lee Bester, Dealer Development Manager at Digit FMS.

“I’ve come all the way from Zambia specifically for this show, and I found it very interesting. I was exposed to the new technology on show, and I’m taking everything I’ve learned about back to Zambia to see how it will work for us. I was very impressed with the CCTV solutions,” said Abel Musonda, CEO at Navari Fleet Management (Zambia).

“Securex Cape Town has not only extended the reach of Africa’s leading security exhibition but also confirmed the strong appetite for a dedicated regional platform. By balancing innovation with practical application, it has positioned itself as a must-attend annual highlight for the Western Cape’s safety and security sector. Its success has underlined Cape Town’s role as a hub of innovation and opportunity, proving that collaboration between exhibitors and visitors can deliver long-lasting impact. We encourage regular visits to the website — www.securex.co.za — to find out more about the next event, taking place in March 2027, alongside the Cape Town Industrial Technology Exhibition (CITE),” said Anderson.

The post Securex Cape Town debut event drives safety and security solutions forward appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

Workloads for court officials are unbearable. There are too few courts. Court buildings are old and inadequate. Security for witnesses, lawyers and the public is poor. Cases come to court which should not. There is general chaos.

There are too many cases daily in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court, from murder, dealing in drugs, armed robbery, sexual assault, and a range of minor offences. The same situation applies across the board.

Courts just cannot cope with the cases that are brought before them every day, particularly on Mondays.

At the Cape Town and Wynberg Magistrate’s Courts there is only one court that deals with bail applications, and there are just far too many applications to be dealt with.

There should be at least two courts dealing with these applications, particularly where there are serious offences involved and where such applications are opposed. Generally, opposed bail applications take much longer, and these cases sometimes take months to finalise, though by nature they are urgent and should be dealt with speedily.

In other courts as well, trial matters are delayed for lengthy periods, sometimes even for years, because courts in Cape Town, and throughout South Africa, cannot cope with the high rate of cases presented to them.

The solution is short, but perhaps not that simple. We need to create more courts, and employ more magistrates, but it is vital to employ magistrates who have the necessary skills and training to deal with cases efficiently.

Many cases have to be postponed, and many accused are being kept in custody — sometimes for years — because courts simply cannot cope with the caseloads involved.

The key challenges relate to the high rates of crime in this country. Also, too many petty cases are brought to court which should rather be diverted from the criminal justice system in favour of alternative dispute resolution, mediation and the like. I believe the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) should look at more efficient ways to resolve matters without necessarily prosecuting each and every case.

The duty of prosecutors is to look objectively at cases to determine whether there are merits in continuing. Some do apply their minds to determine if there is a reasonable prospect of a successful prosecution, but others just continue with cases merely at the behest of a complainant.

There are very competent magistrates and prosecutors in Cape Town, but there are also some who are just prosecuting for the sake of it, and there are certainly magistrates who need to be better trained in order to be able to deal with matters more efficiently.

More magistrates and prosecutors are urgently needed in Cape Town. These could also be drawn from the private sector. Private attorneys can also assist in prosecuting cases and, in some serious cases, they should be appointed by the NPA.

This does not usually happen in South Africa, but I believe it’s something that needs to be looked at. For example, many cases emanating from the Zondo Commission Report have been left “unprosecuted”, and more private attorneys, private forensic experts and private investigators should be brought in to deal with these cases.

Wild West comes to Wynberg

The recent Wild West-type shooting incidents at Wynberg Magistrate’s Court, as well as at other courts across the Western Cape and in other parts of South Africa, bring the security issue into sharp relief.

The Witness Protection Programme is not properly run. Sometimes, witnesses sit in the same corridor as accused persons. Recent incidents at Wynberg, where a witness was stabbed on the stairs leading into the building, and another in which someone was shot on the fourth floor in the regional court section, have brought this matter into the public realm.

There should be protection for witnesses, wherever they come from, to and from the court, and in the court itself.

Appearing as a witness in my own attempted assassination case was quite traumatic. The people who are believed to have shot at you are watching you all the time, and their friends could be outside the court.

At most courts, the security machines which examine items being brought into the building are just not working. Searches of people are ineffective. Security guards are untrained and ineffective in a crisis.

There have been several instances in recent times when courts have had to be evacuated due to bomb threats. How do you get bombs into courts?

Brawls in court corridors, often between rival gang members, are commonplace.

In the shooting incidents at Wynberg, people were running down corridors. There were children at the children’s court, which is one floor below where the incident took place. Magistrates, prosecutors and lawyers were extremely traumatised.

Dangerous

All lawyers, prosecutors, magistrates and judges have to be vigilant, because they may be dealing with very, very unpopular cases involving accused who may be very dangerous. Yet there is no secure parking for lawyers, in particular. In some instances, lawyers have to walk significant distances to court, after parking their vehicles in parking lots.

Often, there are not even consultation rooms at courts. It is difficult to consult in the court corridors as you are then exposed to witnesses, who may not like you because you are defending an unpopular client.

Some courts are in disrepair and have not been upgraded for many, many years. Some courts, like Hermanus, are in a shocking state. Malmesbury Regional Court burnt down four years ago, and hasn’t been repaired.

The authorities have done very little about any of this, though I have complained on many occasions. The Department of Justice and those responsible for security don’t even meet with lawyers, or with organisations acting on behalf of lawyers, to discuss their views.

As for the role of the police in the court system, there are too many cases for the police to handle. There is a lack of training. Many police detectives have left and retired from the service and this causes another problem in the proper and efficient investigation of cases.

There are delays at the various state laboratories where blood samples and DNA are tested. There are also holdups in various other areas, like ballistics, which in many instances result in cases being struck from the court roll because they are unreasonably delayed and investigations take so long.

Revamp

As an attorney, I represent people from all walks of life, who are owed equality and fairness under the law. The time has come for urgent action to save our criminal court justice system from irretrievable breakdown.

We need a complete revamp of the system.

A concerted effort should be made under the auspices of the Minister of Justice, where all involved can give their views on how to improve the decaying system, through the Law Society and the Legal Practice Council.

The time for urgent intervention is now. We need to save our precious court system, and to protect the noble concept of justice for all.

William Booth is a Cape Town attorney, who serves on several committees, including as head of the Law Society of South Africa Criminal Committee. He is also an appointed counsel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Republished with permission from GroundUp. The original article can be found here.

The post Criminal courts in Cape Town are near to collapse appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

Shopkeepers we spoke to said they pay thousands of rands a month to different extortion groups for protection that they never receive. Failure to pay, they say, leads to violence.

Harare Community Policing Forum chairperson Mthetho Mahamba said on Friday a Somali shop owner was shot and killed in Endlovini informal settlement. He said the motive is unclear, but it appears to be related to extortion gangs.

The second and third shootings took place at a shop in Harare 34 Section on Friday afternoon and on Saturday morning. According to a family member, who we identify as K, two men were shot, but both survived and remain in hospital.

K said that two men entered the shop on Friday and shot one of the Somali shopkeepers inside.

Then on Saturday at about 7am, two different men arrived and shot another Somali shopkeeper standing at the door.

A video GroundUp has seen shows two men approaching the shop and immediately opening fire. No questions were asked. They shot the shopkeeper from outside through the burglar bars, five times. He managed to hide behind a door, and the men ran away.

Police spokesperson FC van Wyk confirmed the Saturday incident. He said police opened a case of attempted murder after a shooting at a premises in Hlonela Street, Harare, at 7:20am on Saturday.

Van Wyk said when police arrived, the victim had already been taken to hospital in a private vehicle. “He sustained a gunshot wound to his upper body while busy at the shop. The suspects were two unidentified males driving a white BMW,” he said.

Van Wyk said the motive is being investigated.

When GroundUp visited the shop, it was closed. K was sitting alone in his car outside.

He said there have been three attacks the past two months. He said the original owner of the shop was killed last month by unknown men.

“We are hurt and living in fear, but we cannot run away. We are Muslim. We are only praying that God protects us. At least my brothers are in stable condition now,” he said.

After speaking for only two minutes, he hurried away saying he was afraid for his safety.

Another Somali shop owner in Khayelitsha, who we identify as A, said that the number of extortion gangs is growing. He said some areas now have up to four gangs each demanding monthly protection fees.

He said each group has its own price, ranging from R1,500 to R3,500 a month.

“The sad reality is that we are on our own. No one is helping us,” he said. “We have people who were shot on their way to the police station after police called them for meetings. … We are not accusing anyone, but right now we do not trust the police at all.”

Mahamba claimed the number of shops owned by immigrants in Harare is higher than the number of police officers at the station.

“While the police do patrol, they cannot protect every shop,” he said.

Last week, GroundUp visited Somali shop owners in Bellville who also raised concerns about the growing number of extortion gangs in Khayelitsha.

One owner of a shop in Makhaza said he spends R15,000 each month paying different groups for protection, although he receives none.

He said shops used to pay R1,500 to a single gang, but now new groups have emerged demanding more money.

“These three new groups are demanding R4,500 to R5,000 from shop owners. If you don’t pay, you get killed,” he said.

“When we reported the emerging groups to the first group, they told us they couldn’t help but still [they kept] the money. The new groups are telling us not to pay the first groups; we must only pay them. We now find ourselves between a hard rock and a fire because we are going to be shot anyway,” he said.

The shopkeeper said many township shops now install cameras to record which gang collected money first, then show it to the other group.

“This is what causes them to kill each other. But the recent incidents in Harare worry us because now, instead of targeting each other, they are shooting at us as revenge,” he said.

While shopkeepers live in fear with little help, residents of Isiqalo informal settlement, Philippi, mete out vigilante justice to suspected extortionists.

Last week Saturday, residents set three men alight after they were accused of collecting protection fees at a local shop.

Residents we spoke to said a group of five extortionists began operating in the area four months ago. They were warned during the second month to stop, but they returned last month.

“On Saturday they collected money from shops and robbed people at gunpoint. A whistle was blown, and people came in numbers. They were beaten, two escaped, and three were killed,” a resident said.

The group of residents we spoke with said police were never called as they take too long to come. They said that police were failing to end extortion.

Another vigilante incident occurred in Mfuleni’s Burundi informal settlement, where a group of young men were caught robbing a house in the early hours of Saturday. One was caught and beaten to death.

Van Wyk confirmed both incidents.

He said in Burundi a man had been found with stab wounds to his upper body.

He said police in the Western Cape condemn vigilantism, following the deaths of four men in two separate incidents on Saturday, three in Isiqalo and one in Mfuleni.

Written by Nombulelo Damba-Hendrik and Phumeza Halonisi.

Republished with permission from GroundUp. The original article can be found here.

The post Extortion gangs terrorise Cape Town’s immigrant shop owners appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

“South Africa is one of the most violent and crime-ridden countries in the world. From January to December 2024, there were over 26,000 recorded murders. Our daily murder rate is higher than Ukraine’s civilian death toll. Roughly the same amount of people has been murdered in South Africa than the total who have died in Gaza – including combat deaths in the period since 7 October 2023 and now,” Nicholas Woode-Smith wrote for the FMF.

Roughly 1.1 million households were burglarised in 2023/2024. South Africa loses approximately R700bn, roughly 10% of its GDP, annually to crime. In 2022/2023, there were over 53,000 reported cases of sexual violence.

“Yet, despite this scourge of crime, the national government insists on SAPS doing all the work. Even so it is woefully equipped to do so. There is a dire police shortage and not enough detectives to even scrape the surface. In 2025, every detective is sitting with 300 – 500 cases each. Once a crime occurs, there is little to no capacity to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice,” Woode-Smith stated.

“This was all in line with the African National Congress’ (ANC) vision of policing. When they came to power in 1994, they fundamentally reformed South Africa’s police by abandoning the autonomy and gutting the effectiveness of detectives and investigators, and replacing law enforcement with the idea of ‘visible policing’.

“The idea was that with Apartheid ended, and the ANC’s policies able to put a stop to all socio-economic issues, there would be no need for criminals to commit crimes. The only stopgap needed would be a handful of visible police officers to deter opportunists,” Woode-Smith continued.

“Of course, this entire policy was delusional, but it resulted in SAPS being gutted as an organisation, and the present-day situation in which South Africa is at the mercy of countless criminals and having to rely on private security just to survive.

Despite Cape Town being unarguably better governed than the rest of South Africa, it is still embattled with gang violence and skyrocketing murders. SAPS has not made a dent in dealing with these gangs and is often too afraid to even enter the Cape Flats, the FMF said.

“No matter how effective Cape Town’s governance, it’s primary issues cannot be solved while policing is centralised. While SAPS is controlled by national government, our local stations will never receive the funding or attention they deserve – and any corruption in the national hierarchy will inevitably infect every station. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) found that decentralisation, notably in law enforcement, improves efficiency, responsiveness, capacity and accountability.”

According to Woode-Smith, decentralised police are closer to the community, care about it more, are accountable to their neighbours, and understand local contexts far better than an out-of-town national appointee.

In fact, decentralised policing is the global norm, he pointed out. The USA has police on every level, all specialised to deal with specific problems. Germany, Canada, the UK and Australia all have localised police forces. Not a centralised law enforcement holding a monopoly. South Africa holds onto an inferior model because the ANC wants to retain “complete authority.”

“Cape Town has a local police force. But as it stands, this police force is little more than a community watch group. They are allowed to deter crime through patrols, and to make arrests. But they are not allowed to investigate crimes. Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis wants to change this. He has pushed for municipal police to be allowed to investigate crimes, so that Cape Town’s more accountable metro cops will be allowed to start dealing with our local crime issues,” Woode-Smith said.

As it stands, the functions of municipal police are (64E of the SAPS Amendment Act (Act 83 of 1998):
Traffic policing.
Policing municipal by-laws and regulations.
Preventing crime.

Hill-Lewis has proposed that investigation be added to this list.

“Studies have shown how the biggest deterrence of crime is certainty of punishment, not severity of punishment. Increased police presence accomplishes little if there is no effective investigation to bring criminals to justice,” Woode-Smith stated.

“Investigation leads to convictions, which prevents repeat offences, and is the best way to disincentivise criminals from wanting to engage in crime. If you want to prevent crime, the only surefire way is ensuring that crimes are investigated, and criminals are convicted.

“Current framing of 64E(C) as not allowing investigation is purely based on petty politics and the insistence that SAPS should hold all the power. Perhaps, the national government is afraid that local police will be able to discover connections between organised crime and high-ranking politicians.

“Regardless, Hill-Lewis doesn’t need to wait. The phrasing and logic are clear. Metro Cops are enabled to prevent crimes. And the only way to really do that is to investigate them.

“The City of Cape Town should start equipping metro police to become investigators immediately. No need for permission. Hill-Lewis has a mandate to the people of Cape Town, who currently suffer under SAPS inadequacy and the scourge of criminality. He owes it to his voters to start preventing crime in a substantive way, and not to keep asking permission from corrupt politicians who don’t care about this country or his city,” Woode-Smith concluded.

Nicholas Woode-Smith is the Managing Editor of the Rational Standard and a Senior Associate of the Free Market Foundation. He writes in his personal capacity.

The post Metro Police should be allowed to investigate crime – FMF appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

Much like in medicine, using researched and tested approaches creates greater certainty that new interventions are likely to succeed. This enhances policing methods and promotes efficient allocation of resources. But can these strategies be scaled up across the country and made part of everyday practice?

In 2024 the South African Police Service (SAPS), Western Cape Government and City of Cape Town piloted an evidence-based hotspot patrol strategy in four police station areas in Cape Town. The exercise was carried out with the support of the Institute for Security Studies and Hanns Seidel Foundation. The results were impressive. Violent crimes in hotspots decreased more than five times as much as in areas that received business-as-usual policing.

But these promising results mean little if strategies are not translated into institutional practice. Policing scholars increasingly argue that measuring success should not only involve demonstrating that a strategy works, but showing that it can be integrated into routine operations.

This has led to a distinction between ‘first-generation’ studies that focus on scientific experiments, and ‘second-generation’ research that places greater emphasis on practically embedding new strategies.

Following the success of the hotspots policing pilots, South Africa is tentatively entering a second generation of EBP research and implementation. Rather than just testing strategies, the SAPS, Western Cape Government and City of Cape Town have taken steps towards institutionalising and scaling approaches.

SAPS has incorporated EBP into its Annual Performance Plan and has directed an initial group of 11 stations to adopt the strategy in the Western Cape this year. The province’s Law Enforcement Advancement Programme is also adopting the patrol strategy, and the SAPS, province and city have designed tools to track and measure how patrols impact crime. EBP is also part of the city’s metro police cadet curriculum, with plans to extend training to managers.

However, significant challenges confront the expansion of EBP across the country. In the few locations where the approach has been deployed so far, the focus has largely been on implementing evidence-based hotspot patrols, which are only one of many useful EBP approaches.

What needs to happen to support the broader adoption and institutionalisation of EBP strategies in South Africa?

Researchers globally have grappled with this question, and have identified several critical factors essential to making EBP part of everyday policing. These include leadership support, collaboration with researchers, officer training, access to accurate and reliable data, and cultural change among public safety agencies and scholars.

In South Africa there have been promising developments in this regard. EBP enjoys leadership support at national, provincial and city levels, and police and safety institutions are increasingly open to collaborating with researchers. There is also a growing uptake of EBP training, with the City of Cape Town recently training over 800 new metro police cadets in the approach.

However, more emphasis must be placed on accurate data recording to support the implementation of EBP strategies. This includes ensuring that stations record precise crime location details, such as correct street names and numbers. Reliable information is a prerequisite to adopting evidence-based and data-driven strategies.

Both SAPS and metro policing in South Africa are dominated by strict hierarchical organisational structures that often restrict independent thought and innovation. Effort needs to be invested in fostering critical enquiry and reflective thinking among police officials and supervisors.

A shift is also required among criminologists and researchers, who often lack the skills needed to collaborate effectively and help institutionalise evidence-based approaches. The gaps include poor knowledge of operational practices on the ground and an inability to communicate concepts in plain language.

Researchers also tend to prefer disseminating their findings in academic journals at the cost of building relations with policing organisations and creating entry points for their research. They also need to use communication channels that police officials are likely to read.

When considering the uptake of EBP, it’s important to remember that this is an evolving process rather than a defined goal or achievement. The process entails collaboration, negotiation and dialogue between multiple stakeholders ranging from police officials to crime analysts in various state enforcement agencies, and researchers. These interactions gradually shift attitudes to policing and lead to new strategies, technologies and infrastructures.

By measuring South Africa’s position in the process rather than just focusing on the destination, the country is on an early yet sound path to adopting, refining and embedding evidence-based policing.

Written by Vanya Gastrow, Senior Researcher, Justice and Violence Prevention, ISS Pretoria.

Republished with permission from ISS Africa. The original article can be found here.

The post Can evidence-based policing become routine across South Africa? appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

“Getting into gangs is easy, but getting out is impossible” is another popular saying in Cape Town’s gang-affected neighbourhoods. It also gives the impression that gang membership inevitably ends violently. That’s seemingly confirmed by murder statistics showing an average of two gang-related deaths in and around Cape Town every day.

Much has been written about gangs in the city. Researchers have described, for example, how gangsterism found its origins in the institutionalised violence and social disorder imposed by white supremacy under apartheid. Scholars have also written about how gang membership offers opportunities – self-protection, income and dignity – in areas where the post-apartheid state fails to provide adequate development and governance. But there is a lack of writing on gang exit in Cape Town. This reinforces the idea that gangsterism is a death sentence.

But gangsters do get out. As a social scientist I write about this in my book Gang Entry and Exit in Cape Town.

The book is based on the life histories of 24 former gang members, as well as hundreds of hours of additional interviews and observations from years of research. It shows that male and female gangsters – some trapped in gangs, substance abuse, prison, and extreme violence for over a decade – turn to family, work and religion when trying to get out.

The redemptive role of religion, especially, is central for those trying to trade street life for “normal life”.

Patrick

About 97% of South Africans declare some form of religious affiliation. The vast majority are Christian. Current and former gang participants are among the believers.

Religious membership can promote positive social networks, offer guidance for repairing relationships, and give social support and acceptance. Importantly, my research shows that spirituality also offers ex-gangsters a model for handling conflict, as well as a way to convince others – especially other gang members – that their change can be trusted.

Take Patrick (29), a former member of the Laughing Boys. Patrick used to believe that “the more people you hurt, the more people fear you”. Now he thinks differently:

I started attending church more often, reading my Bible, I helped out (at) home. With that I also learned a little bit of humility towards other people and not just to care about myself as much.

He describes how he would put on the performance of a kerk broer (church brother) when walking past his former gang brothers with a Bible, a kind word, and a deferential demeanour. This is essential to remind them of his exit from gangs, just as wearing silver chains and sneakers, speaking in slang, stabbing and shooting used to show people that he was a real gangster – not to be messed with.

Patrick admits that religion is not only about piety. It is also about performance:

I want my change to be visible, to be known by everybody that I’m not that type of person anymore.

Stigma and distrust of ex-gangsters is a key stumbling block along the journey towards gang exit. The hope is that if he can walk the righteous path for long enough, people’s memories of Patrick the Laughing Boy will be replaced by an acceptance of Patrick the church brother.

Getting to that point is not without peril, though. Like most participants in this study, poverty and limited social networks keep him trapped in the community he grew up in – and within striking distance of other gangsters. One day he was ambushed and almost assassinated by a former foe. He told me:

He didn’t have a gun fortunately, that day he wanted to kill me. I actually came from church on a Sunday walking with my Bible. He jumped out his car and said: You taking chances to even f-ing walk here … So your past can come back to haunt you.

Emerson

Emerson (43) had been part of Cape Town’s biggest gang, The Americans, for over 20 years. He served 16 separate stints in prison, mainly for violent crimes. He said:

If we get into an argument I won’t still finish talking, I will pull out my gun or knife.

Emerson now leans heavily on scripture to guide his disengagement process, and in particular to deal with conflict without violence. He described, for instance, a robbery attempt:

He’s standing over me with this brick. And I’m thinking that this guy is going to hit me … I just relied on God. His word says, ‘No weapon formed against you shall prosper.’ The Bible tells you about meekness.

Emerson also knew that playing the pious man meant showing the outside world his commitment to non-violence was real – even if meant getting hurt.

I cannot operate like I used to if I get into situations like with that robber. Because people are watching to see how I react. The gangs are watching. I knew I had to resist and forgive this guy.

As luck would have it, the attacker stalked off, likely surprised by his would-be victim’s passive reaction. But Emerson was left conflicted:

When I walked away, that’s when it started. I thought: how can I let that guy do that? Does this guy know who I am in the (gangs)? It was very hard. I started crying also, thinking that this thing happened and I did nothing.

Emerson had to fight off two threats that day. First the robbery and then this emotional reaction to it. This almost pushed him towards revenge, seeking “blood for blood” as gangsters are expected to do.

Like others in this book, Emerson didn’t experience gang exit as a single decision to change. It was a long, continuous confluence of deliberation, doubt, hope, introspection, trauma and resolution, which tangled together in complicated and sometimes contradictory ways. Eventually he got to the point where he was more out of gangs than in.

Of course, leaving gangs is a precarious process that gives no guarantee of safety. So Emerson and others took what precautions they could. Along with work and family, turning to religion gave them the best chance to stay alive until their family and neighbours accepted them, gang-mates forgot about them, and beefs with their rivals waned – showing that leaving gangs in Cape Town is difficult, but not impossible.

Written by Dariusz Dziewanski, Honorary research affiliate, Centre of Criminology, University of Cape Town.

Republished with permission from The Conversation. The original article can be found here.

The post Gangs, guns and bibles in Cape Town: what it takes to quit a life of violence and stay alive appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

Two properties in Goodwood and Khayelitsha, meant for use by the South African Police Service (SAPS), have been hijacked and are illegally occupied.

Zikalala issued the eviction notices while leading Operation Bring Back (OBB) in Cape Town on Sunday.

Operation Bring Back is a nationwide campaign led by DPWI Deputy Minister, Sihle Zikalala, and its intended purpose is to recover all stolen State land and property. Some of these properties include those that are vacated by user departments without being brought back to the department, and have become vulnerable to illegal occupation.

As a result, some are run down due to overcrowding and dilapidation and lack of management by State institutions that were allocated the buildings.

During this Cape Town leg of Operation Bring Back campaign, many whistle-blowers came forward and others physically brought evidence to the Deputy Minister of stolen properties by even commercial entities and NGOs.

The Goodwood property Zikalala first visited is a residential property that was donated to the asset portfolio of government by patriotic citizen, the late Clair Shelly Boulton, to be used by the South African Police Service.

In her will, Boulton clearly stated that the property must be used by the SAPS for fighting drug abuse in the community. The property has since been hijacked and is believed to be used as a drug peddling den against the will of Boulton, who donated the property.

Illegal occupants have invaded the property and have erected temporal structures. Currently there are 12 illegal occupants including children. There is allegedly rampant substance abuse including drugs in the property.

The second property visited is the 946.90 Ha on Stellenbosch Road, near Khayelitsha, which was allocated for mixed use by SAPS, including residential accommodation, public order policing, stock theft, anti-gang and shooting range.

The farm was used to accommodate SAPS officials, many of who have since left after being deployed to other areas, leaving many of the houses vacant.

The farm has vast land, which has been illegally occupied and informal settlements proliferation is taking place.

Zikalala’s visit has revealed a huge problem of hijacked State properties not only by the poor and people desperate for houses but by big commercial entities, NGOs and those posing as owners and collecting rent money from illegal occupiers.

Failure to comply with the eviction notices, the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure said, will result in legal action.

“Clearly the problem of illegally occupied, hijacked and stolen government properties is extensive and underestimated. We are seeing a strong element of poor management of State assets that are handed over to client departments that do not hand them back the department [when they vacate them],” said Zikalala.

Zikalala will be intensifying Operation Bring Back in the coming months. A support programme, which includes the appointment of property specialists, has been developed to identify, audit, analyse, evict and recover illegally occupied and hijacked buildings.

The focus is on all buildings that are supposed to be in the immovable asset register of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure.

In carrying out evictions of land and buildings by an unauthorised occupants, the department follows legal processes, including the Prevention of Illegal Eviction (PIE) from and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act, 19 of 1998, which regulates the eviction of unlawful occupiers from land and property in a fair manner, while recognising the right of landowners to apply to a court for an eviction order in appropriate circumstances.

The post Eviction notices issued to occupants of hijacked State properties appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

Fidelity SecureFire, a subscription-based private firefighting service, launched in June in Cape Town. It has been operating in Gauteng since 2023. It’s also active in Durban, East London, Gqeberha and Bloemfontein.

On its website, the company describes itself as “reengineering the future of fire protection in South Africa through scale, technology, and an unwavering obsession with speed, trust, and precision”.

But the City of Cape Town’s chief fire officer, Clinton Manuel, said he wrote to Fidelity in May informing the company that the service was “unregulated”.

The City is opposing the operation of private firefighting services in its jurisdiction, considering it “unlawful and constitutionally impermissible”, said Manuel.

“We have no mandate from our citizens to outsource the fire and emergency function to private entities for their commercial gain and will not be entering into any sort of agreements with Fidelity,” said Manuel.

He confirmed that Fidelity is not linked to the City’s emergency call centre nor the Fire Service Command and Control Centre.

“They seem to be self-responding, but like any citizen, they have a duty to report fires to the legislative authority as soon as they become aware of an incident,” said Manuel.

The City’s fire service has not been receiving reports of fires from Fidelity, yet Fidelity has at times been first on the scene of a fire or accident, he said.

He said that City incident commanders have been instructed to ask Fidelity staff to leave the scene of a fire or other emergencies as having “unregulated and unauthorised service providers in attendance at fires” would undermine “managing emergency incidents safely and effectively”.

Manuel warned that Law Enforcement would be called to remove them.

He added that no one is permitted to use municipal fire hydrants other than the municipal fire service.

He said the City’s Fire and Rescue Service has agreements in place with district municipalities and the Western Cape government, and a fleet of over 130 firefighting vehicles.

“This, combined with our available staff, proves that we do not need assistance from private, unregulated entities purporting to be professional firefighters,” said Manuel.

Gauteng

Private firefighting services are gaining traction in Gauteng. In 2022, Discovery launched its private fire service in Johannesburg.

However, the City of Tshwane recently initiated court proceedings against private firefighting providers. The City filed papers in order “to enforce compliance with applicable legislation”, it said in a statement.

The City of Tshwane said that private fire services were operating without “legal authority, regulatory approval, or formal agreements with the municipality in direct contravention of national and local legislation governing emergency services”.

The City said the operations present challenges for the City’s command and control structures during emergencies, “compromise incident scene management, draw water from municipal fire hydrants, which violates city bylaws”.

The DA said in a statement following the City’s decision to go to court that “instead of trying to abolish private firefighting services, the City of Tshwane should instead aim for appropriate regulations while addressing its own capacity issues”.

Fidelity responds

Fidelity responded to GroundUp’s questions with a press statement. Wahl Bartmann, CEO of Fidelity Services Group, denied their services were unlawful. He said Fidelity is “confident that no existing laws prohibit or restrict the lawful provision of private firefighting services”.

Bartmann said that Fidelity SecureFire is not a replacement for municipal fire services but is “complementary”.

“We respond only when formally engaged through contractual agreements – similar to how private security firms operate. Our customers choose us voluntarily, seeking enhanced protection tailored to their specific needs,” he said.

He said that Fidelity would continue delivering its fire protection service despite resistance from municipalities.

Fidelity is expanding to Stellenbosch, Paarl, Worcester and Hermanus this July. Within the next few months, it will expand to Polokwane, Pietermaritzburg, Nelspruit, Richards Bay and other areas.

Written by Liezl Human for GroundUp and republished with permission. The original article can be found here.

The post Fidelity fire service is unlawful, says City of Cape Town appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

“In Manenberg, for instance, where three people tragically lost their lives and four were injured over the weekend due to gun violence, police resources have been steadily depleted over time by the National South African Police Service. Vehicles that were redirected to Operation Restore were never replaced, leaving the station and its officers unable to adequately respond to calls for assistance. This situation is mirrored across the province, where specialised units such as the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) are similarly constrained by resources being depleted by the National SAPS. Shockingly, the AGU has not received new vehicles since 2019, often having to borrow vehicles from already strained police stations, limiting their capacity to conduct large-scale, disruptive operations against gang and gun violence,” Cameron said in a statement.

“Furthermore, the role of crime intelligence has diminished, as the reduction of resources by the National SAPS prevent the timely gathering and sharing of crucial information. An effective crime-fighting strategy hinges on real-time intelligence, yet this remains unattainable due to the severe under-resourcing of relevant SAPS units.”

Cameron added that compounding these challenges, the collaboration between SAPS and other critical departments—such as Correctional Services and the Department of Justice (DoJ)—is lacking.

He said there is an urgent need for a more integrated approach that ensures local police stations are notified when parolees are released into their precincts and that parolees are effectively monitored. Furthermore, close coordination with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) is essential to secure stronger and swifter convictions in court. “The breakdown in these processes further hampers efforts to protect communities and bring offenders to justice,” he said.

The DA has called for the devolution of policing powers to the Western Cape provincial government to enable local approaches to the unique safety needs of the Western Cape.

“With more localised authority, the Western Cape government and the City of Cape Town could fast-track gun crime cases by conducting ballistic testing and crime scene investigations locally. This devolution would alleviate pressure on the national budget, ensure greater accountability at a local level, and expedite the conviction of gun-related offenders. We believe this approach will strengthen law enforcement and improve public safety in a way that is simply not achievable under the current centralisation,” Cameron stated.

“The safety of our communities is non-negotiable, and the DA will continue to advocate for the resources and reforms needed to end the scourge of gun violence in the Western Cape. We call on national government to prioritise SAPS resourcing, restore vehicles to local police stations, and support the devolution of policing to provincial and municipal authorities.

“The time for action is now; our communities cannot wait any longer for their right to safety and security. While resources present challenges, SAPS leadership must be transparent on whether we have the correct people in critical positions,” Cameron concluded.

The post Gun violence, resource shortages in Western Cape need urgent intervention – Cameron appeared first on ProtectionWeb.

“The scary thing is that for all the confiscated items, thousands of kilograms more made it to bucket shops and unscrupulous scrap dealers, and so fuelling a number of illicit trades. The MTU has also recorded a marked increase in complaints attended to, compared to the previous year. It is a sign that the theft and vandalism of infrastructure remains rampant, but also that more people are reporting it,” said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.

The MTU recorded a slight downturn in arrests year on year, but they increased proactive hotspot patrols by nearly 25% which served as a deterrent, and also responded to 43% more complaints.

Metal confiscations weighed in at 1 839.41 kilograms, while the amount of confiscated cable clocked 54 kilometres, which is the distance between the Civic Centre in the Cape Town CBD and the foot of Sir Lowry’s Pass.

“The scale of the destruction becomes more evident when you consider exactly how much infrastructure we’re losing and replacing, only to be lost again and again. This is not nickel and dime stuff, but economic sabotage, and we need to start treating it that way with swift prosecutions and heavy sentences. Metal theft is on the long list of priorities that we hope to tackle through our cooperation agreement with SAPS and the Western Cape Government. In addition, we will continue to use tools like our CCTV network, Eye in the Sky and infrared technology to tackle metal theft, but also continue to invest in training and inter-agency collaboration,” added Smith.

In August, staff members from the City’s enforcement agencies joined the SAPS and National Prosecuting Authority for a joint two-day training intervention on essential infrastructure crime.

Residents can report crime and by-law offences anonymously, 24-hours a day, on 0800 110077.

The post City of Cape Town recovers tons of stolen metal, 50+ km of stolen cable appeared first on ProtectionWeb.