Illustrative image | Coffins representing young people killed in gang violence. (Photo: Gallo Images/Brenton Geach) | Student and civic groups march, demanding justice. (Photo: Gallo Images/Die Burger/Lulama Zenzile) | 
Children are supposed to be able to sleep peacefully, walk in their neighbourhood and travel safely to and from school. But for children on the Cape Flats in Cape Town, even these activities can be fatal.
In a recent parliamentary reply, Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia revealed that between the 2020/2021 and 2024/2025 financial years, 472 children under the age of 17 years were murdered on the Cape Flats.
Of that figure, 157 were gang-related murders. Cachalia didn’t detail the reasons for the other 315 murders.
According to the parliamentary reply, most of the gang-related murders were recorded at the Delft, Elsies River, Kleinvlei and Mitchells Plain police stations.
In the space of one financial year, the number of gang-related murders more than doubled, with 27 recorded in 2023/24 and 59 in 2024/25.
At the same time, over the course of five financial years, 3,335 illegal firearms were seized across the Cape Flats.
Most of the firearms seized were reported at Bishop Lavis (271), Delft (471), Manenberg (255), Mitchells Plain (345), Nyanga (206) and Philippi (260) police stations.
ActionSA MP Dereleen James, who asked the question in Parliament, said: “These figures lay bare the devastating reality in Cape Town’s forgotten communities, where children are increasingly caught in the crossfire of warring gangs that continue to reign unchecked, with no clear plan of action from government.”
Unpacking the first and second quarter 2025/26 crime statistics on 28 November, Cachalia said, “I will be visiting the Western Cape in the new year, to engage specifically with all the governmental actors, and communities, with the police, and I will also be engaging with the premier, Alan Winde, because the alignment of our efforts, as government, will also be critical if we are to see results in the fight against gangs.”
Earlier this year, the South African Human Rights Commission said, “Some parents live in fear, not knowing whether their children will make it to school or back home because of gang violence.” DM