Mayor calls for state to oppose drug dealer bail applications
20 April 2026
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called on the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to oppose bail for drug dealers harming local communities. This follows the Mayor exposing an example of a dealer back on the streets just days after City police arrested him in Woodlands, Mitchells Plain. See the video here: https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1B4nHwFppA/
Mayor Hill-Lewis has called on the NPA to instruct its prosecutors to oppose bail for drug dealers in gang-impacted communities on the Cape Flats.
‘I’ve written to the Regional Director of Public Prosecutions to raise my concern at the state’s routine failure to oppose bail for drug dealers fuelling gang crime on the Cape Flats. Our call is for prosecutors to be instructed to oppose bail for drug dealers in each case. Prosecutors should amplify the voice of communities when calling on magistrates to deny bail for those who are preying on our youth, our schools, and neighbourhoods.
‘Selling tik to our children can never be a crime where bail is simply not opposed by the prosecutor.
‘Denial of bail, and continued incarceration while awaiting trial, will promote community safety and send a strong message that the state takes drug-dealing offences seriously,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
The Mayor’s call follows the City’s Metro Police arresting a suspect in possession of 30 packets of tik in Mitchells Plain on 9 April, only for the suspect to be granted R3 000 bail after-hours by the standby prosecutor, without a hearing by a magistrate or any opposition from SAPS or the NPA.
‘During one of my recent ride-alongs with metro police, I witnessed our officers arrest a dealer with a bag of tik in Woodlands, Mitchells Plain. Returning a few days later, I was shocked to see the dealer already back on the streets. This is a person with prior charges of murder, assault and drug possession, who is preying constantly on young people and is a danger to the community, and yet the police and NPA did not oppose bail. This is a shocking outcome and we will be back again and again until a person like this is behind bars,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
The Mayor added that low conviction rates for gang, gun and drug crime is exactly why the City is calling for more policing powers for metro officers, particularly to investigate crime and build case dockets to support under-resourced police and prosecutors.
‘As it stands, our City police make the arrest, find drugs, and hand these over to police and prosecutors, who lack the resources to secure a conviction. If our officers had the power to go a step further and build the docket, we could get many more gangsters off the streets. As it stands, our officers routinely make over 2 000 drug arrests annually and participate in over 1 000 drug raids. With investigative powers, we could seriously disrupt the drug trade, which fuels violent crime and gangsterism,’ said the Mayor.
While the City has welcomed the deployment of the SANDF as a short-term relief measure, it has called on the President and Acting Police Minister to act urgently on real solutions to up gang crime convictions by devolving more powers to City police.
The City’s full submission on expanding draft regulations for municipal policing powers, published by the National Police Minister, can be viewed here: https://bit.ly/4oGBvrk
The City previously released data showing how its policing resources are increasingly overtaking those of SAPS. The City added over 1 300 new officers to the streets from 2021 to 2025 – a 48% growth in personnel - 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.
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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
