12/11/2025
Statement by the ANC Western Cape Provincial Legislature Caucus - For Immediate Release
12 November 2025
ANC STATEMENT ON THE ESCALATING VIOLENCE AND KILLINGS IN THE WESTERN CAPE
The African National Congress Caucus in the Western Cape Provincial Legislature is deeply alarmed and saddened by the rising tide of violence and senseless killings across our province. In the past 72 hours alone, thirty people have been murdered. These shocking events paint a grim picture of communities trapped in fear and pain, living under conditions that have become intolerable.
The crisis unfolding across the Western Cape is not only a policing issue. It is rooted in the deep structural problems of poverty, unemployment, and inequality that continue to define the lives of the majority of our people. Generations of residents have been left without hope, without jobs, and without proper social infrastructure. The daily reality in our townships is one of despair, where young people are lured into gangs because they see no other path to survival.
The ANC is particularly disturbed by the new and horrifying trend in which children as young as 14 to 16 years old are becoming both victims and perpetrators of violent crimes, including murder. This is a tragic reflection of a society abandoned by those in power at provincial level. We are equally horrified by the rising number of women being targeted and killed. In just four days, five women lost their lives to brutal violence. Additionally, this morning, we woke up to the devastating news that two males and a female were murdered in Montclair, Cape Town. In a separate incident, two females were shot dead inside a taxi at Nyanga taxi rank.
These killings are not normal, and they must never be treated as such. They require an urgent and extraordinary response from all spheres of government. The ANC calls on national government to declare a State of Disaster on Violence and Underdevelopment in the Western Cape. Such a declaration must be accompanied by a coordinated national intervention that combines policing, social development, job creation, and community development. It is time for targeted national investment in the so-called Cape Gang Fields, to restore peace and rebuild lives.
The Democratic Alliance, which governs this province, has once again shown that it is unbothered and indifferent to the suffering of the black poor and working-class majority who make up nearly all the victims of this violence. Instead of presenting real solutions, the DA issues opportunistic statements calling for policing powers to be devolved to municipalities. These empty proposals do nothing to confront the root causes of the violence. The DA has no plan to address the poverty, joblessness, and despair that feed this bloodshed, because these problems do not affect its core constituency.
The DA’s governance has failed the people of the Western Cape. Its approach to safety is superficial and its attitude toward the victims of violence is cold and uncaring. The party’s obsession with power and control blinds it to the human cost of underdevelopment.
The ANC stands with the families who have lost loved ones. Their grief is our grief. Their cries for justice must be met with compassion, urgency, and decisive action. The time has come for the national government, working with progressive forces, to act boldly and restore hope to communities that have been abandoned for far too long.
END
Issued by:
African National Congress Caucus
Western Cape Provincial Legislature
For media inquiries:
Benson Ngqentsu - 082 796 6400
Spokesperson on Police Oversight and Community Safety
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