Saturday, 28 November 2025

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) welcomes the historic decision of Parliament, taken on Tuesday, 25 November 2025, to adopt without a single objection our motion calling for a full, multi-portfolio parliamentary intervention into the ongoing violent crime crisis in Cape Town and across the Western Cape.

The motion was adopted with amendments, after the EFF initially called for the establishment of an Ad Hoc Committee to investigate the senseless killings in the province. Parliament instead resolved that the matter be handled through a strengthened, multi-portfolio parliamentary process, led by the Portfolio Committee on Police in collaboration with the Portfolio Committee on Social Development and committees within the security cluster.

We welcome these amendments as they retain the full substance of our proposal while broadening oversight and ensuring coordinated accountability across the relevant portfolios.

This important outcome follows the EFF’s tabling of the motion on 13 November 2025, a motion grounded in undeniable evidence that communities across the Cape Flats are living under siege due to rampant gang violence, mass shootings, and total policing failure.

In adopting the motion, Parliament affirmed the urgent need for a coordinated response by the relevant committees to confront the deep-rooted causes of violent crime in the Western Cape.

The adoption of this motion comes just days before the release of the latest SAPS crime statistics, which once again confirm that the Western Cape has become the murder capital of the country. According to the statistics released on yesterday, the Western Cape recorded the highest number of murders with more than one victim, with 228 people killed in 100 incidents.

Even more disturbing is that out of the 315 gang-related murders recorded nationally between July and September this year, a staggering 293 occurred in the Western Cape. The province also registered a record increase, contributing an additional 97 murders compared to the previous reporting period.

Mfuleni, Kraaifontein and Delft occupy the top three positions nationally for murder, with Gugulethu following in fifth place, confirming once again that the precincts most affected by violent crime are overwhelmingly concentrated in this province. These statistics reveal a province in crisis, where communities, especially African and coloured communities are forced to live under the constant threat of violence while the state fails to provide adequate protection.=

The EFF has long maintained that addressing this crisis requires more than routine policing, empty political statements, or lip service. We hope that the outcome will be the establishment of a properly funded, expert-driven task team capable of confronting the structural and social conditions that enable this violence.

Parliament’s adoption of the motion is an important step towards ensuring that such an intervention is not merely symbolic. We will not allow this process to become another instance of lip service or bureaucratic delay while our people continue to die at the hands of gangs, criminal networks, and a collapsing policing system.

The EFF will ensure that the committees tasked with this work deliver tangible outcomes. We will not rest until Parliament produces a clear, actionable set of solutions that meaningfully address the crisis of violent crime in Cape Town and restore safety, dignity and justice to all affected communities.

ISSUED BY ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Sinawo Thambo (National Spokesperson) 072 629 7422

Thembi Msane (National Spokesperson) 061 467 8169

Andiswa Madikazi (Parliament Media Liason) 069 516 4924

Thato Lebyane (Media Inquiries) 078 563 1581