In wake of Q3 crime stats, Cape Flats Safety Forum again calls for army deployment to deal with gang-related crimes
The SAPS released an update on Friday that showed the Western Cape had the highest number of gang-related murders, with over 200 murders taking place between October and December 2024.
FILE: An apartment building is seen in the Cape Flats area of Cape Town, on March 30, 2020. Picture: AFP/Pieter Bauermeister
CAPE TOWN - The Cape Flats Safety Forum said that the latest police crime statistics showed how prevalent gang-related crimes were and they wanted the SANDF to be deployed to deal with it.
The SAPS released an update on Friday that showed the Western Cape had the highest number of gang-related murders, with over 200 murders taking place between October and December 2024.
Just recently a four-year-old child died after he was struck by a stray bullet, almost exactly two years since his sister died in similar circumstances on the Cape Flats.
Chairperson of the Cape Flats Safety Forum, Abie Isaacs, said that they urged the president to deploy the national defence force.
"We note with concern the stats that has been released by the minister for the period of October to December 2024. Yet again we’ve noted that guns were the common cause used for murders in and around the Cape Flats, specifically the gang-ridden areas, we again call on the president to deploy the South African defense force as a force multiplier. Secondly, also set up a probe to look into the gun violence that has been prevalent in and around the Western Cape."
Isaacs said that the forum hoped that civil society would also get involved.
"We salute in the line of self with the minister in calling on a triple P public-private partnership and we hope that this triple P extends beyond your normal traditional community policing forums and neighborhood watches, but it encompasses other broad-based civil society movements."