IOL EXCLUSIVE | Police boss dismisses calls to step down as bloodshed mounts in Cape-Town's gang wars
Western Cape Police Commissioner Patekile responds to growing calls for action amid Cape Flats bloodshed.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
As the Western Cape continues to stare down the barrel of non-stop bloodshed, with trigger-happy gangsters taking each other out every single day — and innocent bystanders, including children, all too often ending up dead because of it — calls for the province’s police boss to step down seem to be falling on deaf ears.
Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile is not about to up and leave his job anytime soon, as he said on Wednesday that he now wants to work very hard to make the province safer.
And he has a “comprehensive policing strategy” up his sleeve to do just that, he told IOL.
"As the provincial commissioner of the Western Cape, I undertake to work with all other legitimate stakeholders within the province whose objective is to create safety in communities."
But experts and community leaders are not convinced, saying it was far too little, too late.
Patekile's remarks come hot on the heels of a scathing report, recently forced to be released by Premier Alan Winde, which said the province’s men and women in blue have been in bed with the maniacal hoodlums of the notorious 28s gang.
It also comes less than 24 hours after a nine-year-old boy was among three people killed in Mitchells Plain on Tuesday night, while two others were shot dead minutes apart near the Athlone Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday.
The first incident, police spokesman Colonel Andrè Traut said, occurred in Viscount Street.
The little boy, Zechariah Matthee, 21-year-old Cleo Bailey, and Mougsheen Daniels, 26, died, while two men, aged 51 and 36, were wounded.
“Preliminary reports indicate that four unidentified gunmen opened fire on the premises before entering the house and shooting the victims,” Traut said.
“Detectives from the Anti-Gang Unit have been assigned to the investigation and are pursuing several promising leads to track down the perpetrators responsible for this heinous crime.”
In Wednesday's incident, police spokesperson Captain FC Van Wyk said the first attack unfolded at 1.45pm, when a 32-year-old man was shot and killed while sitting in a car about 50 metres from the court.
Five minutes later, gunfire erupted again, this time in Kewtown, roughly 300 metres away, where a 31-year-old man was shot dead.
Van Wyk said: “The suspect/s fled the scene in an unknown direction. The motive for these attacks forms part of the police investigation.”
On Monday, a man, allegedly affiliated to the Hard Livings gang, was gunned down in Letaba Street, Manenberg. He was 36.
In Bo-Kaap, a 22-year-old man was shot dead in broad daylight at a block of flats on Astana Street.
Police investigate the scene where a nine-year-old boy and two adults were killed in Mitchells Plain on Tuesday.
Image: Ayanda Ndamane / Independent Media
The Western Cape is ranked among the top contributors to the bad crime situation in SA alongside provinces such as Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The latest crime statistics, released last week by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia for the first six months of the 2025/2026 financial year, attest to that.
The Western Cape recorded an alarming 2,308 murders during that period.
Some of the hardest-hit communities include Delft, Mfuleni, and Kraaifontein, where residents continue to face relentless gun violence.
Mfuleni recorded 156 murders across the first and second quarters — already 61.4% of last year’s total at the station.
According to Patekile, serious violent crime in the Western Cape is concentrated within the City of Cape Town district.
Of the 152 police stations in the Western Cape, 62 are in the City of Cape Town and contribute 65% to contact crime of the province.
Speaking to IOL, Patekile said policing efforts were often impeded by:
- Densely populated communities;
- Informal settlements that are poorly lit with no access roads;
- High unemployment with no diversion programs for the youth;
- Environmental design;
- Sprawling municipal flats developed during apartheid years and are breeding ground for gang violence; and
- Lack of basic services for some communities.
Patekile said the Western Cape was littered with high incidence of gang violence, extortion as well as taxi conflict violence.
"Armed with a policing approach, Western Cape police management has taken out gang bigwigs, extortion racket leaders and hitmen," he said.
"Their cases are currently running in courts. However the leadership vacuum left by the arrest of crime bosses, has also inadvertently become a source of conflict within gangs, taxi associations and extortion groupings."
To add to the mix, he said, there were allegations of police complicity to criminality.
"As police, we consistently root out bad apples within our ranks," he said.
He said while gangs were loosely organised groupings in the past, the level of sophistication of today’s gang members was "alarming".
"They are now enterprises involved in organised crime having evolved over time," he said.
"Ours is to be a step ahead and defeat criminality.
"That is an ongoing objective that we strive towards on a daily basis.
"Hence we have embraced advanced policing methods that entail evidence-based policing, technological innovations as well as collaboration with others in law enforcement and business.
"It is our firm view that if we work together, communities, business, law enforcement we will defeat criminality and its manifestations."
He said his successes in making arrests and seizing drugs, firearms, ammunition, and stolen property go a long way in building confidence in law enforcement.
"Gaining the trust of community members will eventually be restored," he said.
"In as far as the crime of extortion is concerned, we as the police encourage communities to report it as the phenomenon is characterised by under-reporting.
"We have thus established the toll free number 0800-31-4444 for reporting extortion anonymously.
"Most of the major arrests we have made was from information shared on the number."
He also said he believes that if criminals are isolated and communities work together, safer communities can be build.
"It is on this basis even this week we held a meaningful meeting focusing on solutions with stakeholders such as the Cape Crime Crisis Coalition," he said.
Independent crime researcher Calvin Rafadi previously said Patekile should be replaced.
“Communities remain under siege from violent criminal gangs,” he said.
The Cape Flats Safety Forum also asked Patekile to resign.
Anti-crime activist, Yusuf Abramjee, said there needed to be "urgent and immediate intervention".
"This has been the call from communities for a very long time," he said.
"Political will is also necessary and we know [Cachalia] was on the Cape Flats a few weeks ago and indicated he would return in January.
"That is good, but we need action.
"There has been too much talk, and really, urgent interventions are needed at all levels — national, provincial, and local."
He said there was clearly a shortage of resources.
"Urgent resources must be deployed to the Cape Flats to bring an end to, or at least control, the gang warfare," Abramjee said.
"Regarding [Patekile], I have seen calls for his resignation.
"I don’t believe that will solve the problem ... the solution lies in police leadership, both nationally and politically, developing and implementing a clear strategy to combat gang warfare.
"Even a change in leadership alone will not help.
"We need interventions — approaches that can genuinely win community trust."
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