Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has called for urgent action to strengthen conviction rates for gang, gun and drug-related crimes, following the release of the latest Quarterly Crime Statistics. While police arrests and weapon confiscations remain high across several Cape Town precincts, the Mayor warned that prosecution failures continue to undermine efforts to curb violent crime.
“The latest crime stats make it clear that violent crime continues to plague some of our most vulnerable communities,” Hill-Lewis said. “We see encouraging declines in murder in areas like Nyanga, Philippi East and Khayelitsha — all supported by LEAP deployments — but without stronger conviction rates, we cannot turn the tide.”
Stronger arrests, weak convictions
The City highlighted that the police is confiscating significant quantities of illegal guns and drugs across multiple precincts, and that City enforcement agencies are also removing over 450 illegal firearms from Cape Town’s streets each year.
Despite this, the conviction rate for gun-related cases stands at just 5%, a figure the Mayor described as “an indictment of a broken criminal justice system.”
Hill-Lewis urged the Acting Police Minister to urgently resource the police and expand draft municipal policing power regulations published earlier this year.
“With more policing powers, our officers can build prosecution-ready dockets immediately — and help secure more convictions for gang, gun and drug crime,” he said.
City’s enforcement capacity now outpaces the police
Recent City data shows major disparities in policing capacity between the City’s enforcement agencies and the police.
Since 2021, the City has added 1 263 new officers, representing a 48% increase, while police staffing in Cape Town has dropped by 1 300 officers, or 15%.
The City also now has 560 more policing vehicles on the road compared to the police, based on 2025 fleet data.
JP Smith, Mayco member for safety and security said the City’s investment is clearly strengthening community safety — but conviction rates remain the biggest barrier.
“Our new Neighbourhood Safety Officers (NSOs) have made substantial drug-related arrests, yet cases fall flat due to backlogs and systemic failures. We need urgent reform across the justice system,” Smith said.
Detective shortages and delayed data sharing hampering progress
A parliamentary reply revealed that police vacancy rates across many Cape Town precincts sit between 20% and 40%, including 200 vacant detective posts as of August 2025.
Smith said these shortages, combined with delayed crime data releases, hinder proactive policing.
“We have continually asked for real-time crime data to better deploy our resources. The City has shown we can assist the police through intelligence-led investigations that dismantle syndicates, but we need the powers and cooperation to do so.”
Hill-Lewis said: “It’s a Black Friday for Cape Town given these stats — but our special offer remains 100% more investigative capacity. The Acting Minister should not refuse it.”
