Violent start to 2024 highlights continued crime intelligence failures

15 January 2024

This weekend’s mass killing in Khayelitsha has dashed any hopes for a lessening of violence in 2024. The incident, which resulted in two deaths and four hospitalisations, demonstrates that SAPS crime intelligence remains ineffective at preventing these mass casualty events.

Over the last five years, SAPS has decimated its own capacity in the Western Cape. Continuous under resourcing has resulted in a situation in which the SAPS faces a staff shortfall of nearly 5 000 members in the province. 77% of SAPS precincts in the Western Cape do not have enough staff, and recent staffing allocations to the Western Cape by national government have been insultingly low.

SAPS’s ability to anticipate and investigate crime has also been decimated. Fewer than 3 000 detectives remain operational in the province, and an astounding 62% of violent crime remains unsolved. Under these circumstances, it is clear that there is little hope for ending these mass killings without a new approach from the police.

DA Western Cape spokesperson on Community Safety Gillion Bosman says: “These mass killings will not end unless the bloated, inefficient, and overly-centralised model of policing pursued by Bheki Cele changes. Sadly, it has become abundantly clear that the ANC’s national government is unwilling or unable to do so. The simple reality is that we need an urgent change to policing in our province and in our country, and we need it now.”

Issued by Gillion Bosman, DA Western Cape Spokesperson on Community Safety, 15 January 2024