Western Cape police have confirmed the murder of an off-duty sergeant from Nyanga who was shot dead while visiting a relative in Khayelitsha on Sunday afternoon (21 June).
The SAPS member (47) was at his relative’s home in Town Two when two gunmen entered at approximately 14:55 and fired multiple shots at him. The attackers fled in a vehicle.
Police have opened a murder docket at Lingelethu police station. The motive remains under investigation, and the Directorate for Priority Crimes Investigations is handling the case. The officer has not been identified by name.
SAPS Western Cape management expressed condolences to the family and colleagues of the deceased officer.
The killing follows the murder of DA Ward 104 by-election candidate Sinovuyo Dyokwe in Dunoon on Saturday evening.
Dyokwe was shot dead on her way home after helping people register to vote during voter registration weekend.
The weekend’s violence comes amid ongoing shootings in the Cape Flats. Earlier in the week, four men were killed in Lotus River, whilst a shooting in Manenberg claimed the life of a young man and left several others injured, including a SAPS member.
The spate of killings has prompted the DA in the Western Cape to call for a special task team on gang violence in the Cape Flats.
In a statement released, the DA said the latest killings serve as “reminders of the devastating impact that criminal gangs continue to have on communities across the Cape Flats” and “reiterate the serious questions about the effectiveness of the continued deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) as a response to gang violence”.
“While the presence of the SANDF may provide temporary and limited increases in visibility, it has not delivered the substantial reduction in gang-related crime and violence that residents so desperately need,” the statement reads.
Benedicta van Minnen, the DA’s Western Cape spokesperson on police oversight and community safety, said: “Residents deserve more than temporary deployments and reactive responses. They deserve lasting safety, effective law enforcement, and a criminal justice system that removes dangerous offenders from our streets. The loss of life to violent crime in communities such as Lotus River and Manenberg must never become normalised.”
The party referenced the province’s repeated calls for more capable crime intelligence operations to investigate and dismantle criminal networks, along with an adequately resourced visible police service.
ALSO READ: More than half of South Africa’s police stations unreachable by phone, audit reveals
The DA has called on the minister of police and the national commissioner of SAPS to convene an urgent anti-gang intervention task team for the Cape Flats, bringing together SAPS detectives, crime intelligence, the National Prosecuting Authority, local law enforcement agencies, and provincial authorities to develop a targeted operational plan aimed at increasing arrests, securing convictions, and dismantling gang networks operating in identified hotspots.
