Crime Stats: Illegal firearm arrests show welcome increase
23 May 2025
Quarterly Crime Statistics released by the South African Police Service (SAPS) today show promising increases in firearm arrests where the City of Cape Town has added more police resources to help SAPS fight crime.
Two of South Africa’s top five precincts for illegal firearm arrests - Manenberg and Phillipi / Hanover Park – are both areas where the City has installed gunshot detection technology with rapid response protocols. Firearm confiscations are up 66% in Philippi (Hanover Park), and 150% in Manenberg year-on-year.
Cape Town’s top six stations for firearm arrests are also all LEAP areas where the City has deployed more boots on the ground in partnership with the Western Cape Government: Delft, Philippi, Mitchells Plain, Manenberg, Bishop Lavis, and Elsies River.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced this week that City policing operations are removing over 400 illegal guns from the streets every year, but a broken criminal justice system secures convictions in just 5% of these cases. The South African Police Service (SAPS) and prosecutors have secured just 81 convictions so far from the 1 670 guns seized by municipal officers from January 2021 – January 2025.
‘We welcome the increase in illegal firearm arrests across many of Cape Town’s crime hotspots, especially where more City policing resources have been deployed to help SAPS fight crime.
‘It is vital now that we start turning these arrests into convictions, given that SAPS and prosecutors are securing convictions in just 5% of City firearm confiscations cases. As it stands, our officers have the power to arrest and seize firearms, but have not yet been given criminal investigative powers to help build case dockets for successful prosecution.
‘These powers can in fact be immediately granted to our officers via the National Police Minister issuing regulations under the SAPS Act, and we will continue to push for this on behalf of communities living in daily fear of crime,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
Alderman JP Smith said the City is now confiscating more firearms annually – over 400 – than in the entire decade from 2006 – 2016, due to massive scaling up City policing resources.
‘Our research shows that around 70% of illegal firearm cases handed by our officers to SAPS do not proceed to successful prosecution due to incomplete investigations, outstanding ballistic and DNA reports, or insufficient evidence gathered.
‘The City has introduced a special training module to ensure all its officers have the necessary statement-writing and docket-building skills, given that SAPS Forensic Crime Scene Investigators are often not immediately available to respond to crime scenes. The City also maintains an open door policy for any SAPS investigating officers who need to follow up on specific case dockets with City arresting officers.
‘We are ready to help with investigations and the completion of dockets to gain more convictions, having already established a Safety and Security Investigations Unit (SSIU) and related information management services. All we need now is the necessary investigative powers to go ahead and build prosecution-ready case dockets together with the SAPS and NPA. All City police are receiving training in docket-building in anticipation of these powers being devolved. We remain hopeful that the recently signed Memorandum of Cooperation with SAPS in our region will lead to a solid partnership in removing violent criminals from our streets. It is vital that, together with SAPS, we now settle the implementation protocol to give life to this cooperation agreement,’ said Alderman Smith.
The City continues to invest in growing its policing resources, including:
Over 1 200 officers deployed to major crime hotspots via the LEAP initiative in partnership with the Western Cape Government
Further growth of over 1 100 uniformed officers since 2021, including the upcoming deployment of 700 more officers to provide dedicated neighbourhood policing capacity in each ward and to escort service delivery teams in unsafe areas
A major R800m safety technology investment for smarter policing, including drones, dashcams, gunshot detection , CCTV, dashcams, bodycams, automated number-plate recognition, and the digital system to coordinate it all, known as EPIC.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
