Action Society will attend the memorial service in Mitchells Plain today following the brutal murder of a nine-year-old boy and two young adults during a mass shooting in Rocklands on Tuesday night. The organisation expresses its deepest condolences to the families and community who are once again grieving the loss of innocent lives to unchecked violence.
According to initial reports, four masked gunmen entered and surrounded a home in Rocklands before opening fire. Nine-year-old Zechariah was killed, along with two adults aged 25 and 30. Several others were injured. This tragedy unfolded in a neighbourhood that has, for years, suffered under chronic shortages of detectives, visible policing and operational resources. Criminals operate freely because they know the odds of arrest are low and investigations take far too long to complete.
Action Society reiterates that South Africa’s centralised policing model is incapable of responding to the realities and risks faced by communities such as Mitchells Plain. A one size fits all management structure in Pretoria cannot solve local crime patterns. The Western Cape needs well resourced, locally accountable policing structures that understand community dynamics, can mobilise quickly and are directly answerable to the people they serve. Localising police services is no longer a theoretical reform. It is a life and death necessity.
According to Kaylynn Palm, head of Action Society’s Action Centre in the Western Cape, Mitchells Plain needs more officers, more detectives and more vehicles, but it also needs leadership that is rooted in the community and accountable at ground level. “A nine-year-old child has lost his life while the state continues to insist that the current policing model is sufficient. There have still been no arrests. The police must treat this case as an urgent priority and ensure that these gunmen are found and removed from the streets. If policing is not localised and resourced properly, these tragedies will continue.”
Action Society will continue to support affected families and engage with community leaders at today’s memorial. The organisation again calls on government to prioritise policing capacity in high-risk areas and to initiate urgent steps toward a decentralised, locally driven policing framework that can restore safety and trust.
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