Admin
22 Oct, 2025
Johannesburg cannot live under the gun: UDM demands urgent action on gang violence
Statement by Yongama Zigebe, Councillor in the City of Johannesburg for the United Democratic Movement and Chairperson of the S79 Committee on Gender, Youth and People with Disabilities The United Democratic Movement in the City Johannesburg is outraged by the surge of gun violence that continues to claim innocent lives and sow fear in our communities. Over the past three months, Johannesburg has been gripped by a wave of shootings that have turned our townships and suburbs into war zones. Families are burying loved ones, children are dying in crossfire, and the sound of gunfire has become an unbearable soundtrack of daily life. The latest tragedy in Westbury, where two teenagers were killed and four others injured in a suspected gang related shooting, exposes the depth of our crisis. In Alexandra, a community that already bears the scars of poverty and inequality, gunfire has become routine. From the brutal killing of community leader and businessman Vincent Ndima to the shooting of community guardian Zandile Mojapelo and the murder of patrollers who volunteered to protect their neighbours, Alexandra has become a mirror reflecting the broader decay of safety across Johannesburg. These are not isolated incidents. They are the visible wounds of a system that has lost control over illegal firearms, failed to dismantle gangs, and neglected to restore community confidence in law enforcement. Johannesburg residents are living in fear because the state has failed to protect them. This must end now. The UDM in the City Johannesburg also notes with grave concern the National Police Commissioner General Fannie Masemola’s admission that police have been attacked by the very communities they are meant to protect. This breakdown of trust between law enforcement and residents reveals a deeper crisis of legitimacy and accountability. When communities no longer believe that reporting criminals will lead to justice, criminal syndicates gain strength while honest citizens retreat in fear. It is clear that policing alone cannot solve this epidemic. Without trust, intelligence sharing and visible integrity from officers on the ground, enforcement efforts will continue to fall short. The fight against guns and gangs must therefore begin with rebuilding confidence between the police and the people. Recent remarks by National Police Commissioner have confirmed what communities have long feared, that Johannesburg’s gang crisis now involves the recruitment of children as young as thirteen. This revelation is horrifying and underscores the complete collapse of prevention and early warning systems that should protect young people from being drawn into crime. It is unacceptable that our schools have become recruiting grounds and our streets a battlefield for minors doing the bidding of adult gangsters. The UDM in the City Johannesburg calls for urgent intervention from the Departments of Basic Education, Social Development and Police to disrupt this pipeline of child recruitment and to introduce community-based rehabilitation programmes that can save these children from a lifetime of violence and incarceration. The UDM in the City Johannesburg calls upon the Acting Minister of Police to treat Johannesburg’s gun violence epidemic as a national emergency. The time for excuses has passed. We expect an intensified anti-gang and firearm recovery operation that focuses on hotspots such as Westbury, Alexandra, Eldorado Park and Hillbrow. Police visibility must increase, community policing must be revived, and coordination between SAPS, Metro Police and Crime Intelligence must be restored. The City of Johannesburg’s Public Safety Department must strengthen patrols, fix broken streetlights and install CCTV cameras in high-risk areas. Law enforcement cannot win this war alone. The Department of Social Development must mobilise youth rehabilitation and anti-substance abuse programmes that steer young people away from criminal networks. Parliament and the Gauteng Provincial Legislature must hold law enforcement agencies accountable for their failure to regulate firearms and combat gun trafficking. The UDM in the City Johannesburg calls on the people of our city to rise together. Our safety is our collective responsibility. We cannot be silent while criminals dictate how we live. Communities must reclaim their streets, report criminals and stand united against fear. The time has come to restore dignity, to protect our children and to defend the right to life that our Constitution guarantees. This is not just about policing, it is about leadership, justice and the soul of our city. The UDM in the City Johannesburg will not look away while our city bleeds. We will hold those in power accountable, insist on real policing reform and work tirelessly to rebuild a city where safety and dignity belong to every resident.
Admin
11 Sep, 2025
Gangs, guns, and governance: UDM Cape Town calls for urgent stabilisation in the Western Cape
Statement by Bongani Maqungwana, UDM Councillor in the City of Cape Town The United Democratic Movement (UDM) in the City of Cape Town notes with grave concern the ongoing surge of gang-related violence in Mitchells Plain, Mfuleni, and across the Cape Flats. Communities remain trapped in daily fear as shootings, extortion, and drug-related crimes devastate families and undermine social stability. We welcome Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia’s engagement with communities, as well as his acknowledgement that gangsterism in the Western Cape is deeply tied to organised and transnational crime. However, these challenges require more than conversations; they demand urgent and decisive action. Reports that weapons stolen from Namibian police and military stockpiles have been smuggled into Cape Town highlight the complexity of the threat. Military-grade firearms, including AK-47s, have found their way into the hands of gangs, fuelling violence and overpowering already stretched police resources. SAPS and Namibian authorities must urgently strengthen cross-border collaboration, secure state armouries, and disrupt trafficking networks. Equally alarming are the recent shootings at the Athlone, Mitchells Plain, and Wynberg courts, where three people (including alleged gangsters) were killed in separate attacks. Such incidents have placed staff, witnesses, and the public at risk, forced lockdowns, and delayed court proceedings. These attacks further destabilise the justice system and underline the urgent need for comprehensive security measures, including increased police presence and better technological safeguards. The UDM further notes Minister Cachalia’s statement that he has not ruled out the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to gang hotspots. While the UDM appreciates the desperation of communities calling for military support, we caution against treating the army as a first line of defence. Soldiers are not trained in civilian policing, and their use in urban communities carries serious risks. If such an option is pursued, it must be as part of a carefully coordinated, temporary stabilisation effort alongside reinforced policing and intelligence operations. Equally concerning is the Minister’s revelation that the long-awaited Cooperation Agreement between SAPS, the Western Cape government, and the City of Cape Town, signed more than a year ago, has not yet been implemented. This agreement, which includes commitments to share intelligence, data, and resources, was designed to enhance collaboration and strengthen crime-fighting capacity in the province. Its failure to materialise is an indictment of poor coordination between spheres of government at a time when unity is most urgently required. What is urgently needed is a comprehensive stabilisation plan: • A fully resourced and effective anti-gang strategy by SAPS. • Intelligence-driven operations targeting drug lords, arms smugglers, and extortion networks. • Cross-border security collaboration to cut off the flow of high-calibre weapons. • Increased police visibility in affected communities. • Implementation of the Cooperation Agreement without further delay. • Transparent communication and accountability from both national and provincial government. • Strengthened court security to protect staff, witnesses, and the public from gang-related attacks. The flow of illegal firearms, the unchecked rise of gangsterism, and the failure of government coordination represent a national security crisis. Communities cannot continue to live under siege. The UDM in the City of Cape Town calls on the national and provincial governments to act with urgency, precision, and accountability to restore safety, dignity, and stability to the people of the Western Cape.
Admin
31 Aug, 2019
Reflection on the deployment of the SANDF in the Western Cape
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) is aware that it has been several weeks since the deployment of the soldiers in some of the gang war areas in the Western Cape and the sad part is that the killings or the number of people being killed brutally in the area has not gone down. This in a way compels one to perhaps reflect on whether deployment was bad idea or not and one can easily say it was, due to the fact that the ruthless killings are still happening and the number of people being murdered especially during the weekend keeps on going up despite the deployment. The UDM believes that the deployment was not a bad thing to be done, the error done was perhaps in how it was done. One of the questions that keeps coming up, around different areas is whether leaders in these different communities were consulted with regards to the deployment. This is a very important step in ensuring that the deployment is not in vain as these leaders know the ins and outs of their communities and therefore could assist in dealing with the different areas as the dynamics are not the same. Another issue is that different stakeholders must be involved in the fight against crime as the South African Police Services and South African National Defence Force (SANDF) cannot do such alone. A lot of investment ought to be made in research especially in understanding townships where the crime rate is very high. One of the contributing factors of crime in the townships is the contestation around resources and space. This now speaks to the fact that the Ministry of Police and of Defence cannot win the battle alone, there must also be a lot co-operation between the different government departments and also spheres of government such as the legislature, executive and the judiciary. These must keep one another accountable at all times to ensure better service delivery for the people as ‘service delivery’ is a contributing factor to the crime rates in the country. The South African Police Service (SAPS) should work conjointly with SANDF to make sure no stone is left unturned in curbing the high rate of violent crimes in Western Cape. In closing the deployment of the soldiers in the different areas in the Western Cape does not mean that SAPS is to abdicate from its duty to protect and defend vulnerable law-abiding citizens, police officers must continue performing their tasks. Mr Bongani Msomi UDM Secretary General
