Calls for provincial police commissioner to be axed

The newly released crime stats, has reinforced callls for provincial police commissioner, Thembisile Patekile to be axed.

Independent crime researcher Calvin Rafadi said Patekile  should be replaced, warning that decisive leadership changes are essential if violent crime persists.

He  also recommended rotating Anti-Gang Unit members to reduce exposure and corruption risks, and strengthening the National Prosecuting Authority’s Asset Forfeiture Unit to freeze and seize the assets of gang leaders, disrupting the financial infrastructure that fuels recruitment of vulnerable youth.

Rafadi has renewed his call for the national government to deploy the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) as a force multiplier to support the under-resourced Western Cape SAPS.

“Communities remain under siege from violent criminal gangs,” he said, stressing that the government can act immediately by declaring crime hotspots a state of emergency, allowing SANDF support without delay.

He emphasised that SAPS and SANDF must work jointly to dismantle entrenched gang networks and taxi-industry hitmen, known locally as “izinkabi,” who are responsible for a large proportion of gun-related crimes.

Adding weight to these concerns, retired Brigadier Cass Goolam, who led Mitchells Plain Police Station, one of the province’s busiest for a decade, criticised provincial leadership for dismantling proven operational teams and methodologies, misusing specialised tactical units, and failing to provide moral and practical support for officers on the ground.

Goolam, who spent more than 40 years in the police and worked closely with Major-General Jeremy Vearey and the late Major-General Andre Lincoln, warned that political interference has prioritised optics over operational effectiveness.

“Whatever decisions provincial management has made and the strategies they may have to combat gangs have had the opposite impact. They have contributed to making the Cape Flats conducive to gangs,” Goolam said.

He highlighted the leadership vacuum in Crime Intelligence and Visible Policing, the premature interference with effective ground teams, and the appointment of senior officers without proven operational track records.

While the country recorded a marginal decrease in murders compared with the same period last year, the Western Cape is experiencing a worsening crisis.

In Q1, murders in the province increased from 1 138 last year to 1 148 this year. By the end of Q2, the Western Cape had already reached 2 308 murders 51.6% of last year’s total 4 467 murders, with half the financial year still remaining.

Some precincts have seen extreme surges. Mfuleni recorded 156 murders across Q1 and Q2 already 61.4% of its entire annual total last year. Delft, Kraaifontein and several Cape Flats communities continue to experience weekly mass shootings, leaving families and neighbourhoods traumatised.

Even more alarming is the gang landscape. Of the 632 gang-related murders recorded nationally in the first half of the year, 575 roughly 91% occurred in the Western Cape alone. This means nearly all gang killings in South Africa are taking place within one province.

On a per capita basis, both the Eastern Cape and Western Cape recorded about 15 murders per 100,000 people, while KwaZulu-Natal recorded 10 per 100,000, and Limpopo had the lowest rate.

The top five murder stations were Mfuleni (Western Cape), Kraaifontein (Western Cape), Delft (Western Cape), GP (Gauteng), and Gugulethu (Western Cape).

The data also paints a grim picture for the period from April to June 2025, where the Western Cape recorded an alarming 65,772 serious crimes.

Action Society said the numbers show that the fundamentals of policing in South Africa are not working, adding that while national figures hint at slight improvements, the Western Cape reflects systemic collapse.

“South Africans do not need more slogans. We need working systems, trained officers, functioning laboratories and accountability,” said spokesperson Juanita du Preez.

The City of Cape Town has once again called on the SAPS to open the door to sharing crime data.

"As SAPS detectives continue to grapple with the increasing workload, the City’s enforcement agencies have continually offered to assist. The delayed release of the statistics provides no tangible benefit to our officers on the ground. We have continually asked for the sharing of crime data to assist in the deployment of our resources.

"We believe that the City enforcement agencies have shown we have the ability to assist SAPS in addressing the gang violence plaguing our communities through intelligence-led investigations that dismantle syndicates and remove them from our streets.

"But our increased efforts in the fight against crime will only succeed with the necessary urgent reforms across the criminal justice system and the provision of additional policing powers," said JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.

The damning statistics arrived just as Patekile and his management team appeared before the Western Cape Cabinet to brief Premier Alan Winde on gang investigations, intelligence operations and policing capacity.

GOOD Party Secretary-General Brett Herron said the conversation around removing Patekile should include questions about systemic SAPS failures that have left violent communities under-resourced.

He said Patekile must answer for longstanding deployment discrepancies that have placed the province’s poorest neighbourhoods at the greatest disadvantage.

Herron added that policing alone cannot stop violence generated by overcrowded, under-serviced apartheid-era communities but said SAPS leadership still has a duty to ensure equitable deployment.

He also criticised Premier Winde’s Safety Plan, saying murder numbers have increased “to almost double” since its launch, despite billions being redirected from health and education to fund it. “Too much blood has been spilled under his watch,” he said.

Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia confirmed a revised Anti-Gang Plan is being rolled out nationally, with initial implementation on the Cape Flats, while Winde said the province remains committed to violence-prevention initiatives and collaboration with SAPS.

tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za

Weekend Argus