| Crime stats: City offers resources to up convictions for gang, gun, and drug offences | Crime stats: City offers resources to up convictions for gang, gun, and drug offences | | <img alt="" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/PublishingImages/Disability%20And%20Job%20Opportunities%20Header.jpg" style="BORDER:0px solid;" /> | <p>Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says there is an urgent need to up the conviction rate for gang, gun and drug crime given the high levels of violent crime evident in the latest Quarterly Crime Stats. The Mayor says the City is immediately ready to offer resources to help up conviction rates.</p> | <p>‘These latest crime stats make it clear that violent crime continues to plague some of our most vulnerable communities, with gang activity being a common denominator for Cape Town precincts in the top 30 stations nationally for murder. We do take heart in the consecutive declines in murder across both quarters in Nyanga, Philippi East, and Khayelitsha – these are all areas where our LEAP officers are deployed to support SAPS. </p><p>‘The stats also show encouraging rates of police activity in confiscating illegal guns and drugs across most of these Cape Town precincts in both quarters. But this police action is not backed by a strong conviction rate. The City is also supporting these SAPS efforts by taking over 450 guns off the streets per year, but the conviction rate is just 5% in these cases due to the broken criminal justice system and under-resourced SAPS and NPA. </p><p>‘The Acting Police Minister has the power to change this situation in various ways. That includes urgent resourcing of SAPS and, most immediately, expanding the draft municipal policing power regulations issued by his department for public comment earlier this year.</p><p>‘With more policing powers for our City officers to investigate crime, we are immediately ready to build prosecution-ready case dockets to secure more convictions for gang, gun, and drug crime.<br> <br>‘It truly is a black Friday given these crime stats, but our special offer remains 100% more investigative capacity to help SAPS turn the tables on gang, gun, and drug crime, and we believe the Acting Minister should not refuse it,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.</p><p>In October, the City released data showing how its policing resources are increasingly overtaking the South African Police Services (SAPS). The City 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. There are also now 560 more City policing vehicles now on the roads compared to SAPS, based on 2025 fleet data.</p><p>‘In recent years, the City has made significant investments into improving safety in our communities. This is evident in the continued deployment of LEAP officers and the newly deployed Metro Police Neighbourhood Safety Officers (NSOs). Our statistics show that over a three-month period the NSOs have made a large amount of drug-related arrests and other crimes but the low conviction rate continues to be the biggest stumbling block.</p><p>‘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. </p><p>‘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 Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security,’ said Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security.</p><p>A recent parliamentary reply shows that SAPS vacancy rates range from 20-40% across most Cape Town precincts, including 200 vacant SAPS detective posts as of August 2025. </p><p> </p><p>End</p> | 2025-11-27T22:00:00Z | GP0|#1d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70;L0|#01d539e44-7c8c-4646-887d-386dc1d95d70|City news;GTSet|#62efe227-07aa-45e7-944c-ceebacca891d | | | | | GP0|#b3804596-40fb-4bab-a1bf-fb9d052bb0db;L0|#0b3804596-40fb-4bab-a1bf-fb9d052bb0db|crime rate;GTSet|#2e3de6c1-9951-4747-8f53-470629a399bb;GP0|#a949f50a-99f1-4f6d-9f9e-60bc6dd2e24e;L0|#0a949f50a-99f1-4f6d-9f9e-60bc6dd2e24e|Vulnerable Groups;GTSet|#2e3de6c1-9951-4747-8f53-470629a399bb | 1 | | | | | | | | | | | 0 |
