A weekend of violence on the Cape Flats has left five people dead in two separate incidents, with community leaders pointing to a critical shortage of policing resources as a key factor in the ongoing crisis.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) confirmed that three men were fatally shot in the Happy Valley area of Mfuleni on Saturday night. Authorities have stated they suspect the triple murder is gang-related.
In a separate incident, unrelated to the Mfuleni shooting, a man and a woman were also killed by gunshot in Steenberg. The motive for their murders remains under investigation.
The scene in Happy Valley on Sunday was one of somber reflection, marked by the tragic irony of a violent incident in a place with such a hopeful name. The three victims were gunned down outside a local spaza shop.
Speaking from the scene, Frans Mashaba, the Chairperson of the Community Policing Forum (CPF) for Mfuleni, expressed deep concern over the resurgence of such violence in Happy Valley, an area he said had been relatively quiet for years.
“This thing, we are facing since two or three years ago, we are getting so much shooting… but in Happy Valley we never get this thing. I think we started now,” Mashaba said.
He immediately highlighted the core issue facing the community: a severe lack of police personnel and vehicles to effectively patrol the vast area. Mfuleni is described as the “biggest area,” encompassing multiple sectors, yet it is critically under-resourced.
“It’s very serious,” Mashaba stated. “We got only one van working with sector one, sector two… we got three sectors here but only one van is working against the crime and all that. And that is unacceptable in our area. We need more vehicles.”
He explained that a single police van is responsible for patrolling massive sectors, from Happy Valley to Westbank, making effective crime prevention nearly impossible. Mashaba pleaded for more resources from the ministry, even suggesting the area might need its own satellite police station to manage the scale of the problem.
Echoing Mashaba’s concerns, a representative from the local neighbourhood watch, who was not named, emphasized the need for community cohesion and greater police visibility. He urged parents to engage more with their children and for residents to join community safety structures.
However, he also confirmed that promised increased police visibility, which was supposed to begin on September 1st, had failed to materialize.
“Up till now we need more visibility from the police side,” the watch member said. “But if you have one van… this is not going to happen because people know where the vans are. They know which van are where. They know the times. They know when and where to come.”
Both men called for a united effort, stressing that the community and police must work together to overcome the violence. The neighbourhood watch representative made a direct appeal for more volunteers to join the patrols, stating, “individually we are not strong enough.”
The community of Happy Valley is now left to mourn its dead while its leaders issue a desperate plea for the resources needed to prevent further bloodshed.
