This week, while driving to work, I heard on the radio about yet another incident of killings in the Cape Town township of Khayelitsha. This time it was four men suspected of being killed in an act of vigilantism.
The incident was the latest in a series of killings in townships across South Africa. It made me think about the chilling state of violence we are living in, whether perpetrated by criminals or by communities fed up with being terrorised by criminals and police inertia — all of which seems to be bubbling dangerously over from our societal cauldron.
The Khayelitsha situation, however, has long been identified as an urgent threat to the community’s wellbeing. In 2012, the situation finally came to a head when the Social Justice Coalition raised the alarm with the Western Cape government.
This came after more than 100 demonstrations, pickets and marches, and the submission of petitions and memorandums to various levels of the government, all demanding decisive intervention. The organisation, a grassroots social movement, is made up of more than 1,500 members in 11 branches throughout Khayelitsha.
In 2014, the situation eventually prompted then premier of the Western Cape Helen Zille to establish the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry, tasked with investigating allegations of police inefficiency in Khayelitsha and the breakdown in relations between the community and the police. The police minister at the time of the commission was Nathi Mthethwa, who was found dead outside the Hyatt Regency hotel in Paris on Tuesday, 30 September 2025.
Key findings
Some key findings of the commission were that there was a systemic failure and inequality in policing because of inadequate policing resources, and that vigilantism was on the rise as a result of the breakdown in trust between the South African Police Service and the community.
It therefore recommended fairer resourcing, better-trained detectives, stronger community engagement and real accountability. However, these recommendations have since been collecting dust, the evidence of which is the continued lawlessness and tragic loss of life in the township because of the resistance of the then safety and security minister and national police commissioner.
And so, as the desperation has grown, is it surprising that people are continuing to take measures into their own hands? However, there is a danger in vigilantism in that it normalises a subversion of the law and does not operate according to a legitimate justice system. It can end up targeting the wrong people, and it entrenches a cycle and culture of violence.
However, the sociopolitical conditions that lead to crime and violence are another key part of the Khayelitsha — and, in fact, broader township — tinderbox phenomenon. They include inadequate access to basic services such as water and refuse collection, as well as unemployment and overcrowding.
What needs sustained intervention is the improvement of the dehumanising conditions under which people live, so as not to cultivate criminality in the first place. This is not a policing-only problem, but in fact requires interdepartmental intervention. DM
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
