Cape Town's Call for Truth and Safety: A Critique of DA Governance
Cape Town is hurting. Our communities are carrying a weight they never asked for. Children cannot play freely. Parents live with fear as a constant companion. Neighbours close their doors early not because they want to, but because they have to. Every week the news announces another shooting, another family torn apart, another neighbourhood traumatised.
And now we learn confirmed again that the 28s gang has reached the highest levels of SAPS in the Western Cape. This is not a rumour. This is not a whisper. Judge Daniel Thulare warned us about this in 2022. The Western Cape Police Ombudsman confirmed it in a report sent to Premier Alan Winde three years ago.
Three years. Three years in which communities buried their children. Three years in which trust in the justice system collapsed. Three years in which families asked for answers and received silence. Three years in which our DA province told us it believed in “clean governance”, yet hid the very report that proved the depth of the crisis but failed (vuiled) us.
Capetonians, this is both political and personal. This is about our shared humanity. This is about our collective safety. This is about rebuilding the fragile social contract between the state and the people it claims to serve. And this is about the moral duty of leadership a duty that was not honoured.
Why this moment matters
When a gang can sit at the strategy table of SAPS, we no longer have a policing crisis we have a DA governance crisis. Stop blaming National Government, Winde you must take responsibility or resign.
When 63 children are murdered between April and August this year, we no longer have a crime problem we have a humanitarian disaster.
When over 30 people die in a single bloody week in Cape Town, we no longer have isolated incidents we have systemic failure. DA has failed. DA does not care.
And when a Premier sits on a report confirming gang infiltration of the province’s top police command for nearly three years and only releases it after legal threats then we must ask: Who was being protected? Because it certainly wasn’t the people. He has done nothing while we died daily.
Why is this happening? Why are we allowing this to happen? This is a moment to look each other in the eye and ask:
What kind of leadership do we deserve?
What kind of society do we want to build?
What are we, as Capetonians, willing to do , to change, to stand up and to protect one another?
Cape Town is tired and rightfully so
Go into Manenberg, Hanover Park, Tafelsig, Lavender Hill, Elsies River, Ocean View, Nyanga, Gugulethu, or Delft. Talk to the mothers. Talk to the uncles. Talk to the youth who see more funerals than birthdays. Talk to the people who walk with trauma stitched into their daily lives.
You will hear the same things:
“I can’t let my child walk to school alone.”
“We sleep on the floor when the shooting starts.”
“My neighbour was killed just for crossing the wrong street.”
“We don’t trust SAPS anymore.”
“No one tells us the truth.”
People are exhausted. But they are also resilient. Capetonians carry an incredible capacity for hope even when hope feels dangerous, even when hope feels foolish. We survive because we love our families, our communities, and this city.
But hope alone is not enough. We need honesty. We need action. We need leadership that does not hide behind PR statements or bureaucratic excuses.
And above all, we need each other.
What does the report tell us?
The Western Cape Police Ombudsman’s report confirms “unacceptable conduct” by senior SAPS management. It confirms that the concerns raised by Judge Thulare that the 28s gang had access to top-tier police structures, crime intelligence reports, and Anti-Gang Unit briefings were substantiated.
Think about that.
Not suspected.
Not alleged.
Substantiated.
And yet the Premier kept this information hidden since November 2022.
Imagine if your child’s school learned that a dangerous individual had access to the school’s security system and the principal decided to keep that information quiet. For three years. “To avoid panic.” “To protect the process.” “To show good faith.”
Would you accept that?
No parent would.
But that is exactly what happened here just on a provincial scale.
Why must ordinary Capetonians care?
Because this is not about political leaders. This is about:
- the safety of your children
- the future of your neighbourhood
- the justice system meant to protect you
- the moral integrity of the province
- the quality of leadership we demand
- the humanity we owe each other
When the police are compromised, no one is safe.
When the truth is hidden, no one can act.
When leaders protect their image instead of their people, everyone suffers.
This is not a “Coloured community problem”.
This is not a “Cape Flats problem”.
This is not a “township problem”.
This is a Cape Town problem.
A Western Cape problem.
A South African problem. IT IS OUR PROBLEM!
And the only way we overcome it is together.
What must we demand from our leaders?
We must demand:
1. Truth. Fully and without delay.
No more hiding reports. No more waiting for court orders. No more secrecy disguised as “process”.
2. Protection for communities, prosecutors and witnesses.
People cannot testify in a system that cannot protect them. We need real witness-protection support, trauma care, and relocation where necessary.
3. A transparent safety dashboard for the province.
If we can have dashboards for load shedding and potholes, we can have dashboards for murder cases, prosecution outcomes, and gang violence data.
4. Community-driven safety compacts.
Every neighbourhood should have a formal agreement linking CPFs, faith communities, youth organisations, SAPS, Metro Police, NGOs and schools.
5. Consequences. Real ones.
Any SAPS official compromised by gang influence must be removed, redeployed, or criminally charged without political interference or protection.
6. A reset in how we see safety.
Safety is not just police vans and bullets.
Safety is:
- streetlights
- trusted officers
- safe routes to school
- jobs for young men
- community organisations working with dignity
- trauma support
- after-school programmes
- healing, not just policing
But beyond leadership what must we do?
Capetonians, we often underestimate our collective power. But we have always been a city that rises when we stand together.
We must reclaim our humanity.
Refuse to normalise violence.
Refuse to walk past trauma as if it is routine.
We must rebuild trust carefully, but deliberately.
Hold SAPS accountable, yes. But also support the officers who are trying their best in broken conditions. They, too, are afraid. They, too, are targeted.
We must strengthen our neighbourhood bonds.
A safer neighbourhood is not built by police alone. It is built through:
- parents talking to parents
- uncles protecting children on the street
- teachers guiding youth
- faith leaders supporting families
- residents speaking up
- community organisations receiving proper resources
We must refuse to let fear divide us.
Gangsters thrive when communities feel isolated.
Leaders fail when communities stop demanding answers.
Corruption spreads when people lose hope.
But when communities unite, something shifts.
Fear loses oxygen.
Leaders become accountable.
And safety becomes possible again.
We need a new social pact for safety and belonging
Cape Town cannot return to politics as usual.
Not after this report.
Not after the bloodshed of this year.
Not after the silence from those who should have spoken sooner.
What we need is a new social pact built on five principles:
- Truth before politics.
- Safety before spin.
- People before party.
- Community before bureaucracy.
- Belonging before fear.
This is not about who wears blue, yellow, green or red.
This is about who mourns.
Who fears.
Who hopes.
Who survives.
Who belongs in this city we all call home.
Every child deserves a future.
Every parent deserves peace of mind.
Every community deserves justice.
Every officer deserves a leadership they can trust.
Every Capetonian deserves to live without fear.
A closing message to the people of Cape Town
My love for this city runs deep not as a politician, but as a father, a neighbour, a son of this soil. I have seen too much pain on our streets to accept silence as leadership. And I have seen too much courage in our communities to accept despair as destiny.
Capetonians are extraordinary people.
We know how to survive storms.
We know how to rebuild after fire.
We know how to stand up for one another when it matters.
This moment matters.
Let us not be divided by blame.
Let us be united by purpose.
Let us insist on truth.
Let us demand justice.
Let us protect our children.
Let us rebuild trust.
Let us stand together because together is the only way we will win.
Cape Town, we are more than our fear.
We are more than our pain.
We are more than our politics.
We are a city of resilience.
A city of possibility.
A city of people who refuse to give up on each other.
Let us rise not in anger alone, but in love, in compassion, in courage, and in unity.
For safety.
For dignity.
For belonging.
For each other.
* Faiez Jacobs is a former Member of Parliament, founder of The Transcendence Group, Capetonian, Activist, and Servant of the People.
** The views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of IOL or Independent Media.