GOOD, ANC attack DA-led Cape Town over crime and housing

GOOD Party secretary general, Brett Herron, has criticised the aggressive policing strategy by the City of Cape Town.

Herron was making the remarks at IOL Media's Local General Elections Town Hall on Thursday, 22 October 2026. 

“The focus should instead be on the community development aspect of the City’s constitutional mandate, with the aim of making communities safer by improving the conditions in which people live,” Herron said.

He said most people in Cape Town are living in overcrowded, ghetto-like conditions.

Herron calls for investment in communities

He said the City should be investing its resources in community development, upgrading neighbourhoods and addressing the social and economic conditions that contribute to crime. Instead of heavy law enforcement.

“We are seeing investments in militarised, apartheid-era-style SWAT vehicles, yet the City cannot clearly explain what these vehicles are intended to achieve. Rather than addressing these concerns, the discussion shifts to the devolution of detective powers to the City of Cape Town, as though that alone will solve the crime problem,” Herron told the audience.

He said the crime crisis in Cape Town cannot be solved by throwing money on drones and heavily militarised vehicles at the Cape Flats and townships.

Housing crisis blamed for worsening insecurity

“This risks militarising our communities rather than addressing the underlying causes of insecurity. Our communities are being subjected to increasingly aggressive policing while the poverty, overcrowding and poor living conditions that contribute to social instability remain unaddressed,” Heron added.

Herron said the City of Cape Town was policing people with conditions of poverty instead of giving them opportunities and support they need.

“If we are serious about building safer communities, we must invest in people, infrastructure, community development and better living conditions. We cannot police our way out of poverty while neglecting the root causes of crime,

“The DA has failed housing and you can't spin it. 20 years later, we need new governance to fix the housing crisis in Cape Town. The DA doesn't care. The wall they want to build is a physical representation of what they stand for in this City,” said ANC MP Faiez Jacobs.

He said there's 80% of black Capetonians in the Western Cape, but they still vote for a white male.