President Cyril Ramaphosa says the government has a plan to halt gang violence and extortion in Cape Town, despite a sharp escaltion in gang-related killings across the city’s hotspots.
The Western Cape province recorded 4,467 murders in the 2024/25 financial year, with 882 directly linked to gang activity, according to provincial officials.
“With the plans and interventions that we are now developing as we are continuing to deal with the gang violence issue and the extortion, we will be able to bring this gang violence and extortion area of criminality to a halt,” Ramaphosa said in parliament on Thursday in response to questions from MPs.
Ramaphosa outlined several policing interventions currently being implemented, including Operation Lockdown, a national programme targeting high-crime areas through specialised units. The initiative focuses on enhanced intelligence capability, recovering illegal firearms, dismantling drug distribution networks and apprehending wanted gang members.
However, communities tired of hearing promises of action against the gang-land killings which often impact innocent passers-by, have announced plans for a mass demonstration on 01 December, where participants will wear black to commemorate victims of gang violence.
In Manenberg on the Cape Flats, considered the epicentre of gang violence, shootings have become commonplace and sadly many of those killed are inncocent people caught in the crossfire, as rival gangs engage in turf wars,
The challenge is real and the answers are never easy. Activists and community leaders constantly struggle to keep youth out of gangs.
Madrassas have a degree of success in turning the tide, but when class is out, children return to an environment where youth are exposed to gangsterism most of the time.
Someone close to what’s happening is Moulanah Nazeem Samsodien who was raised in Manenberg after his family moved there in 1960.
Moulanah Nazeem is part of Makaatib Raghmaaniyyah a group of madrassas with 38 branches and teaching more than 2 000 children across the Cape Flats, including Khayelitsha.
Masjidul Mujaahiddeen where Moulanah Nazeem serves is located in the heartland of the Americans. Despite ongoing gang activity in Manenberg, many gangsters send their children to madrassa. They would even check whether their kids really attended, Moulanah Nazeem said.
Criminologist Irvin Prof Irvin Kinnes, of the Criminology Department at the University of Cape Town, believes that the issue of gangs needs a much broader strategy than has been historically implemented. This he believes should include socio-economic issues rife on the Cape Flats.
However, community activist Liam Jacobs, representing the Patriotic Alliance, has demanded urgent army deployment.
“All we are asking of this system is peace,” Jacobs told local media. “Because it is going to be impossible to make sure that we have long-term healing if we don’t have stability.”
Jacobs is one of the organisers of the protest action planned for December 1.
