“Every child killed is a tragedy and it is utterly unacceptable that children continue to die while the top leadership of the police are fighting instead of fixing this crisis. Communities across the Cape Flats continue to live under siege. While dedicated SAPS officers do all they can under crippling conditions, the national government continues to fail in its constitutional duty to protect South Africa’s children. The result is a generation growing up to the sound of gunfire instead of laughter,” Schickerling said.

The DA is demanding two urgent national interventions. Firstly, a fully resourced, intelligence-led national anti-gang strategy. This strategy must include measurable targets, firearm tracing, gang-network disruption, and prosecution-ready investigations. A critical component of this is the restoration of South Africa’s crime-intelligence capacity, which has deteriorated through years of instability, mismanagement and poor governance, Schickerling said.

Secondly, the DA wants the immediate devolution of key policing powers to capable provinces and cities. Provinces like the Western Cape and metros like the City of Cape Town must be granted operational control over anti-gang units, firearm enforcement, and hotspot crime-prevention deployments. The current centralised policing model is failing, and the consequences are measured in the lives of children who should have been protected, the DA said.

“South Africa cannot accept a future in which children are murdered on our streets while the SAPS remains silent or ineffective. Families deserve justice. Communities deserve peace. And these children deserved the chance to grow up,” Schicklering said.

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“It’s just a matter of time before we track down these teenagers. Our crime intelligence operatives, detectives and uniformed police are on the ground actively searching for these suspects at various areas of interest,” General Masemola said.

This as police on Tuesday responded to a shooting incident where six teenagers were shot. The victims were rushed to hospital where two of them were declared dead on arrival and four were receiving medical attention. Preliminary reports suggest that the shooting was gang related. It is reported that the six, aged between 14 and 19 years, were shot at by suspects believed to be from a rival gang.

The Commissioner visited Westbury in Gauteng on Tuesday night where he said he was continuously receiving a briefing on progress made in addressing gang violence in this area and other areas that are hotspots for gang violence in the province.

“I have instructed the provincial Commissioner of Gauteng to deal decisively with these lolly lounges where these children in all these hotspot areas are allegedly bunking school to sit and smoke drugs at these lounges,” he said.

He added that police are going after the owners of these houses and those that are supplying the drugs.

“We are also investigating the source of where these firearms are coming from and how children as young as 13 years old have access to these firearms.

“We are aware as indicated last night that older gang members are using children as runners to evade justice. We are indeed focusing on these handlers and surely, we will find them and make them answer as to why they are destroying the future of these young children.”

The Gauteng Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) operating in eight communities ridden by gang activity such as Westbury, Langlaagte, Reiger Park, Eldorado Park and others continue to combat crime in a bid to enhance public safety.

“In a period of four months from June 2025 to September 2025, the AGU arrested 176 suspects for crimes which include murder, attempted murder, possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition as well as being in possession of drugs.

“Among the notable successes, the AGU has arrested 21 suspects for murder, 11 for attempted murder, 94 for drug-related offences, 24 for possession of unlicensed firearms and ammunition, highlighting the police’s determination to reduce gang-related crimes.

“The AGU Detectives have also placed in court three cases, which have been concluded with a combined sentence of 17 years and four months for three accused,” Masemola said.

The AGU’s proactive measures have also led to seizures, including 26 firearms and 452 rounds of ammunition, two stolen vehicles, over 600 grams of dagga, 480 grams of methcathinone (CAT) and over 10 000 grams worth of mandrax tablets.

Other seized items include cellphones, medicine, knives, and substantial amount of cash, all contributing to the ongoing efforts to dismantle local criminal networks.

“As the SAPS, we continue to encourage community members to remain vigilant and report any suspicious and criminal activity to the SAPS Crime Stop number on 08600 10111, you may opt to remain anonymous, all information received will be treated with confidentiality.

“Our deployments remain in place, and we urge all these communities to work closely with the police to put an end to gang violence,” Masemola said.

According to Masemola, five survivors are fighting for their lives in hospital, and the two deceased victims have been identified as 18-year-old Tigan Du Plessis and 17- year-old Diegan Ryters.

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This comes after a four-year-old boy died after being wounded in a gang shooting last week. According to reports, this marks the fourth shooting of a child in less than a week across three different communities. Parents, children, and innocent civilians are dying while the machinery of policing appears paralysed by delay and neglect, according to Lisa Schickerling, Democratic Alliance (DA) Spokesperson on Police.

A few weeks ago, Acting Minister of Police Firoz Cachalia stated that he was working on a plan to curb violence in the Cape Flats. “Yet despite that promise, there is still no publicly released, concrete, and resourced plan to address the crisis. Communities continue to live in fear, and gang violence remains unchecked,” Schickerling state.

“At the same time, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has yet to release the first quarter (Q1) crime statistics for the 2025/26 financial year even though they were due at the end of August. These statistics are vital for understanding where crime is increasing and for targeting police resources effectively. The continued withholding of data only fuels public suspicion and erodes trust at a time when transparency is desperately needed.”

Instead of focusing on essential administrative and operational functions, the SAPS appears to be consumed by internal management crises and time-consuming oversight processes, such as the Madlanga Commission and the proceedings of the ad hoc committee. While SAPS management is consumed by internal issues, crime carries on, the DA said.

“While oversight is important, it cannot come at the cost of day-to-day policing, community protection, and accountability.”

The party urged the Minister to ensure that SAPS’s focus returns to its core responsibilities, preventing and investigating crime, protecting vulnerable communities, and ensuring that transparency and accountability are not lost amid bureaucratic distraction.

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Reportedly, around 90% of gang murders in South Africa take place in the Western Cape, points out Benedicta van Minnen, Democratic Alliance (DA) Western Cape Spokesperson on Police Oversight and Community Safety. “Despite this crisis, the South African Police Service (SAPS) has failed to bolster its presence in the province. Police personnel numbers have dropped from nearly 20 000 officers in 2016 to just 18 000 in 2022, even as the province’s population grew by 11.8% over the same period. This has left communities dangerously under-resourced,” van Minnen said.

In crime hotspots, the police to population ratio is now one officer for every 962 residents, compared to the national average of one for 417. The Western Cape has only 12 908 active officers and faces an average vacancy rate of 12.39%, with some precincts sitting at just over 40% of the required personal. Detectives are overwhelmed with up to 142 case dockets each, to only a shocking 7% of murders being solved.

Minister Cachalia himself admitted on Tuesday 9 September that the intelligence-driven capabilities needed to combat gang violence and organised crime in Cape Town are still not fully in place. This is a failure that is costing lives, van Minnen said.

“There is no meaningful plan from SAPS to address the growing scourge of gang violence in the Western Cape. Communities are living in fear, and law enforcement is outnumbered, outgunned, and unsupported.”

“We cannot afford politicians singing the reform and renew songs while on the ground, capacity is dololo [zero]. Every day without action is another day our communities remain vulnerable. We demand accountability, urgency, and real delivery,” van Minnen said.

The DA is demanding that:

That SAPS table and implement a comprehensive resourcing plan for the Western Cape, with immediate effect.

That municipalities with proven, localised safety solutions be granted the powers and funding required to scale up their efforts and play a greater role in local law enforcement.

“The crisis in our communities cannot be resolved through empty promises and delayed plans. We need boots on the ground, intelligence units activated, and real intergovernmental cooperation that responds to the lived realities of our people. We will not stand by while bureaucracy continues to fail our children,” van Minnen concluded.

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