Cape Town – Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement during his State-Of-The-Nation-Address that soldiers would be deployed to assist the police to tackle gang violence.
Responding to the announcement, Mayor Hill-Lewis said he, “welcomed the SANDF [South African National Defence Force] deployment for short-term stabilisation support to SAPS [SA Police Service] in gang crime hotspots”.
However, Mayor Hill-Lewis challenged President Ramaphosa to act urgently on real solutions for upping gang crime convictions by devolving powers for City police to help SAPS investigate gang, gun, and drug crime.
”Any short-term relief for families in gang-impacted communities is most welcome, and our City police will be on hand to support SAPS and the SANDF, as will our safety technology,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
“But Mr. President, while we welcome the army, it is only short-term. We urge you to also act now on real solutions to up gang crime convictions by devolving more powers to City police.
“Our well-trained officers stand immediately ready to build prosecution-ready case dockets to up convictions for gang crime.
“We’ve sent you the regulations, you have the power to make the reforms, and we urge you to act now.”
Mayor Hill-Lewis said that City police are already confiscating 450 illegal guns 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”.
“The President and Acting Police Minister have the power to change this situation via the necessary statutory reforms,” said Mayor Hill-Lewis.
“We will now push for an urgent commitment from the President for more metro policing powers, and will also look to the courts if needs be.”
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
Commenting on the matter, Alderman JP Smith, Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, stated: “In the past four months, the City confiscated 119 illegal firearms, made over 4 500 arrests, and took more than 16 000 units of drugs off the streets.
“We can go further to build dockets and get convictions in these cases, but the President and Police Minister’s gate-keeping of safety needs to stop.
“Just recently, Acting Minister Cachalia supported the devolution of policing powers for Gauteng crime wardens, but yet we cannot get clear timelines from him on investigative powers for our well-trained and well-resourced City police.
“The City demands an end to delays in the devolution of investigation and forensic powers to City police so that more criminals can be convicted.
“SANDF can stabilise, but only a functioning criminal justice system will keep communities safe.”
The City previously released data showing how its policing resources are increasingly overtaking those of SAPS.
The City added 1 263 new officers to the streets from 2021 to 2025 – a 48% growth in personnel – while SAPS dropped by an estimated 1 300 officers (15% decline) over the same period.
There are also around 560 more City policing vehicles now on the roads compared to SAPS, based on the City’s 2025 fleet data.
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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