Since the 1960s, when forced removals to barren townships rapidly eroded social cohesion and people's sense of community, instead of addressing the underlying issues leading to anti-social behaviour – such as the culture of gangsterism – the State has responded with bullets, truncheons, courts and prisons.
This has led to a vicious cycle criminalising young people of colour. Many end up in prison for non-violent crimes, where future hardened criminals are honed. They are released back into the community, only to commit worse offences, and face re-arrest and imprisonment.
Meanwhile, the conditions in which people live in the townships deteriorate due to overcrowding, poor maintenance, and overstretched infrastructure.
In the Western Cape and City of Cape Town our communities daily suffer the linked impacts of under-development and crime.
But the provincial and city governments are blind to the link.
They prefer playing cops and robbers. The City spent R32m technology called ShotSpotter in 2016, to pick up the location of gunfire, described as "game-changing". But how could it change the game when it takes the cops half-an-hour to reach the scene?
The project was quietly abandoned in 2019, the City was forced to concede in reply to a question I asked in the provincial legislature (though it remains part of the current city policing plan).
Not to be outdone in the spending stakes, the Province is planning to spend R1.3 billion employing 1000 learner law enforcement officers – called LEAPs.
The idea is reminiscent of the "Kitscops" of the 1980s, which were instant cops created by PW Botha to respond to the social and political realities underpinning the anti-apartheid struggle.
The province hopes its Kitscops will reduce the murder rate by 50%.
While they play, there are children who can't get into schools, families living in backyards and informal settlements, and millions of people unemployed.
In the game of cops and robbers, the cops always win.
But in real life, on the ground in the Western Cape, the biggest losers are the people living in vulnerable communities.
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