Living under siege': Cape Flats residents petition government to combat rampant gang violence

Cape Flats communities have issued a desperate plea to government, warning that daily gunfire, gang control and rising death tolls have pushed neighbourhoods into crisis, demanding immediate intervention from all spheres of the state.

A fast-growing petition by the #GangsterismMustFall movement, addressed to President Cyril Ramaphosa, Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Premier Alan Winde, calls for emergency measures to “protect Cape Flats communities” and restore safety in areas where residents say they are “living under siege”.

The petition argues that the scale of gangsterism and gun violence now exceeds the capacity of ordinary policing.

At the time of publication, the Office of the Presidency, the Office of the Premier and the City of Cape Town had not responded to queries.

In an earlier response in the week, on the issue of gangs and GBV, the premier's office said: "While I agree that levels of violent crime, including gender-based violence and femicide, are intolerably high, declaring a state of disaster will likely not be the most effective response to this scourge."

Central to the petition is an appeal to the President to immediately authorise the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to stabilise violence-hit communities.

It states that previous deployments helped to “reduce shootings and gang operations”, “restore calm and stability”, and “support SAPS in high-risk interventions”. .

The second demand calls on Mayor Hill-Lewis to declare a local state of disaster under the Disaster Management Act to unlock emergency funding. The petition argues this would allow the City to focus resources on violence hotspots, expand prevention programmes, strengthen trauma, substance abuse services, and assist youth development initiatives.

A third demand presses Premier Winde to release the provincial government’s draft “Safety Plan 2.0” for public comment. Petition organisers argue that the plan cannot succeed without community involvement, saying residents must be allowed to “review the plan”, “raise concerns” and “contribute lived experience”.

Roscoe Jacobs, convenor of the #GangsterismMustFall movement, said: "The current situation unquestionably meets the threshold for a disaster-level response. Communities are living in fear, schools and businesses are constantly disrupted, and SAPS remains critically overstretched.”

Jacobs added that in several areas, conditions are “the same  and in many areas worse — than those that justified the SANDF deployment in July 2019”.

Political parties have also weighed in. Akhona Jonginamba, regional spokesperson for the ANC’s Dullah Omar Region, said: “We as the Dullah Omar Region have made a call for the President to declare the state of disaster in the City of Cape Town in order to curb the high levels of murders.”

GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron said communities’ fear is understandable, but warned that the military is not a long-term solution.

“Given the war zone that the people on the Cape Flats are living in it is unsurprising that there is a call for the presence of the military again,” he said. “The army’s presence did not result in any substantial reduction in gang related violence… The army is not trained at crime prevention.”

“We must hold our governments accountable for neglecting these communities,” he said.

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