Two days ago, a mass shooting in Atlantis claimed the life of a young 14 year old girl and a taxi operator. Children are once again being killed in crossfires linked to ongoing taxi-related violence.
Yesterday, Thursday 26 February, I went to Atlantis SAPS with my DA colleagues Glynnis Breytenbach MP, and Nicholas Gotsell MP, to see for ourselves how the SAPS are responding to this outbreak of violence.
This was not an isolated incident. It follows several recent multiple-victim shootings in the same area, all connected to escalating taxi conflict. The pattern is clear. The killings are becoming more brazen. Communities are living under siege.
Against this backdrop, Wednesday’s 2026 Budget Speech recognised organised crime as a national priority and announced additional allocations to the South African Police Service, the Criminal Assets Recovery Account and border management structures.
Although this acknowledges the increasingly sophisticated illicit supply chains, money alone will not stop bullets. R1 billion more will not change outcomes if basic operational failures remain unaddressed.
Increased allocations must strengthen crime intelligence, rebuild forensic capacity and entrench prosecution-led investigations. Increased visibility without dismantling criminal networks will not protect communities.
The tragedy in Atlantis exposes this gap. If there was credible intelligence about escalating taxi tensions, why were proactive disruptions not executed? Why were taxi ranks not stabilised through targeted operations? Why were key instigators not neutralised through coordinated investigative action?
The imminent deployment of the South African National Defence Force may provide short-term stabilization because soldiers can hold ground, but they cannot run informant networks, manage complex organised crime investigations or secure sustainable convictions.
Structural reform within SAPS and the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation remains the real requirement.
The real test of the 2026 Budget is not whether violence is temporarily contained, but whether organised taxi-linked criminal networks are dismantled and conviction outcomes improve.
The Democratic Alliance will focus our oversight and engagements on three immediate priorities:
- First, expanding policing powers so that properly capacitated investigative units can operate effectively at local level and accelerate complex organised crime investigations,
- Second, the DA will push for a full independent audit into any police officials directly or indirectly involved in taxi ownership. Conflicts of interest in a sector repeatedly linked to violence are intolerable, and
- Third, urgently rebuilding crime intelligence capacity. Without credible informer networks and disciplined threat analysis, shootings will continue.
One young girl lost her life on Wednesday, and the senseless deaths of people like this cannot continue.
The state’s constitutional duty is clear: protect the innocent. That duty cannot be fulfilled through budget announcements and deployments alone. It requires intelligence-led policing, prosecution-driven investigations and operational competence that matches the sophistication of organised crime.