The South African Police Service (SAPS) has announced rewards of up to R100 000 for information that could help solve two deadly mass shootings in Langa and Gugulethu. Eight people were killed in the two separate incidents, while three others were killed in a separate shooting in Khayelitsha over the weekend.

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Western Cape Police Commissioner Sizakhele Dyantyi has explained why police have not offered a reward for information linked to the Khayelitsha shooting, which claimed three lives.

“There are certain leads that we are pursuing. That’s why we have not put any reward. For the other two, we know the public might have heard, the public might have seen, so that is why now we are having to come up with the rewards.”

Dyantyi said police are still trying to establish the motives behind all three mass shootings.

Several political parties are calling for urgent action to address ongoing gang violence in Cape Town.

GOOD Secretary-General Brett Herron says illegal guns continue to flow into communities, while poverty, overcrowding and inequality fuel violent crime.

“We have SAPS, Law Enforcement and soldiers on the ground, yet the killings persist. This is because policing and boots on the ground will never solve this violent crime problem. We need to be investing in and addressing the root causes of crime and the ghetto-like conditions that make the recruitment of young people into gangs and crime easy and effortless.”

United Democratic Movement (UDM) Western Cape chairperson Bulelwa Zondeka says government must target the criminal networks behind illegal firearms, drugs and extortion.

“The UDM in the Western Cape calls for an integrated, intelligence-led intervention involving SAPS, provincial and municipal law enforcement, crime intelligence and prosecutors. The Western Cape does not need another cycle of outrage, temporary intervention and eventual silence. National, provincial and local government may continue debating their respective powers and responsibilities, but communities cannot remain collateral damage in that argument. The people of the Western Cape do not care which sphere of government wins the argument over policing powers. They want the killing to stop.”

Western Cape Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Anroux Marais says the scale and brutality of the killings are deeply disturbing.

“We must be far more effective in using intelligence to identify where illegal firearms and ammunition are coming from, who is supplying them, where these weapons are being stored and who is distributing them into our communities. Once identified, these networks and locations must be systematically targeted and shut down. These attacks are not possible without access to firearms and ammunition. I again call on SAPS to use available intelligence, lock down identified areas and remove these weapons from our communities.”