Serious violent crime, gang activity and sexual offences remain a daily reality on the Cape Flats, yet key SAPS FCS units tasked with assisting rape victims are operating without usable rape kits.
During oversight visits to several SAPS stations on the Cape Flats yesterday, the DA identified serious shortcomings at the Nyanga FCS (Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences) unit. The unit, which serves areas including Philippi, Philippi East, Nyanga, Gugulethu, Manenberg, Samora Machel, Lansdowne and Athlone, had no usable D1 or D7 rape kits in stock. The only kits available had expired.
Rape kits, commonly referred to in SAPS as D1 and D7 kits, are forensic evidence collection kits used in cases of rape and sexual assault. Their purpose is to properly collect, preserve and document biological and forensic evidence from a victim after an assault. They are a critical part of the criminal justice chain because they help investigators and prosecutors link a suspect to the crime through DNA and forensic analysis in order to ensure a conviction and sentence.
In December 2025 the DA uncovered a similar rape kits crisis when it was found that figures provided to the National Supply Chain unit in Pretoria was largely inflated and the real availability failed the people of the Western Cape during the crucial period of 16 days of activism against the abuse of women and children.
These are not isolated incidents. They point to a deeply concerning collapse in SAPS supply chain management, where corruption and dysfunction at the very top of the organisation are now filtering down to directly affect the most vulnerable people in our society who rely on SAPS to secure evidence, investigate rape and secure convictions against predators.
It is unacceptable that, despite government declaring GBVF a national disaster, frontline SAPS members are left without the basic tools needed to assist rape victims and investigate sexual offences.
These failures are unfolding under the leadership of Western Cape Provincial Commissioner, Lt Genl Thembisile Patekile, whose tenure has repeatedly been marked by serious resource and other failures. During the same oversight yesterday, the DA found that Philippi East SAPS, one of the province’s most dangerous gang and crime hotspots, had only three operational vehicles available to police an entire community of approximately 250 000 people.
At the very moment that the President is deploying the SANDF to support SAPS operations, basic policing systems within SAPS itself are visibly collapsing.
The DA will now use parliamentary processes to determine the true scale of the rape kit shortages and to determine whether this is a continuation of the December 2025 debacle, or whether recent high-profile developments involving SAPS supply chain management, including the arrest of Lt Genl Fani, have further crippled the system.
No victim of rape or sexual violence should ever arrive at a police facility only to discover that SAPS is incapable of assisting them because of corruption, incompetence and collapse within its own ranks.
The DA has a plan to restore law and order by catching criminals, securing convictions, and cleaning up the broken criminal justice system.