The City of Cape Town has been accused of using South African Police Services (SAPS) challenges as political ammunition and engaging in ‘testosterone-driven size comparisons’ in its recent statement about SAPS deployments.

The criticism follows Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’s comments that City policing resources “are increasingly overtaking SAPS with 560 more City policing vehicles now on the roads” compared to SAPS, based on 2025 fleet data.

He touted how the City further added 1,263 new officers to the streets since 2021 – a 48% growth in personnel – while SAPS dropped by an estimated 1,300 officers (15% decline) over the same period.

Hill-Lewis said the metro is urgently seeking more policing powers for City officers to help SAPS fight crime, particularly crime investigation powers to build conviction-ready case dockets for gang, gun, and drug offences.

“Cape Town’s population has expanded rapidly, yet our metro has lost more than 1,300 SAPS officers in just this term of office. This is unthinkable given the violent crime facing our communities, where not a week goes by without a terrible new example of innocent people, and often young children, killed by warring gang members.

“It is increasingly clear that SAPS has no workable plan to deal with the gangs on the Cape Flats, as admitted by suspended Police Minister, Senzo Mchunu, in his testimony before the Madlanga Commission,” Hill-Lewis said.

However, both Fight Against Crime SA (FACSA) and Unite for Change have called on the City to stop politicising the SAPS and to start working with them.

“We’ve seen the City of Cape Town’s recent statements about SAPS deployments. Let’s be clear, the City is using SAPS challenges as political ammunition instead of building real partnerships.

“Yes, SAPS has its issues. Every service under pressure does. But using the actions of a few to paint the entire SAPS as broken is reckless. It demoralises hard-working officers who still report for duty, under-resourced and over-extended, to protect this city daily,” FACSA said.

“The City boasts about growing Metro and Law Enforcement numbers – yet refuses to admit the obvious: they don’t have the investigative powers, national mandate, or prosecutorial reach of SAPS. Uniforms and vehicles may look impressive, but they can’t replace the backbone of criminal investigations and court-ready prosecutions.

“FACSA supports any plan that strengthens safety, but the City has not presented a clear model for how expanded policing powers would actually work. Who funds it? Who trains and oversees it? How will it coordinate with SAPS? Those answers remain missing,” they said.

Unite for Change Leadership Council member and GOOD member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Brett Herron, said that both the City of Cape Town and Western Cape Governments have a habit of politicising policing and then pretending that they have stepped in to fill a vacuum.

“It is not accurate to compare SAPS head count and vehicle count with the City’s deployment numbers. The City includes ‘Law Enforcement’ officers. Law Enforcement officers are not provided for in the Police Act and cannot be compared to SAPS officers.

“Their powers and functions are different, as is the extent of their training. The true story is that the City’s Metro Police is the only force within the City’s safety structure that has actual policing powers, and the City has not invested in growing its numbers.

“The City and Province, like the Gauteng Premier, have misunderstood or manipulated the peace-officer powers that have been given to what they call ‘Law Enforcement Officers’ and including them in an immature game of testosterone-driven size comparisons clearly helps no one living in the Cape Flats war zone sleep peacefully,” Herron said.

Meanwhile, Action Society has signalled for SAPS to engage in public-private partnerships and decentralisation amid the crisis at the SAPS Ballistics Division to restore functionality and trust in the justice system.

Action Society spokesperson Juanita du Preez said the backlog of more than 41,000 unresolved ballistic cases is further proof that the state-run forensic system is no longer capable of delivering justice.

“The backlog in the SAPS Ballistics Division is a national emergency, but it is also a symptom of something far deeper,” Du Preez said. “The centralised forensic model is collapsing. Unless South Africa allows qualified private forensic laboratories to assist under strict oversight, the wheels of justice will remain stuck.”

“Private forensic capacity in South Africa already meets international standards. There is no reason why these laboratories cannot be contracted to assist with DNA, toxicology, and ballistics testing,” Du Preez added.

“It is time to take forensic work out of bureaucratic paralysis and put it in the hands of professionals who can deliver results.”

Action Society said that behind every one of these cases is a family living in uncertainty.

“Parents who cannot bury their children with closure, survivors who are forced to relive trauma each time a case is postponed, and families who attend hearing after hearing only to hear that evidence is still outstanding. The human cost of delay is devastating and far-reaching,” they said.

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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