Hill-Lewis responds to Rupert's comment on WC crime, blames national govt

CAPE TOWN - Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that businessman Johann Rupert was mistaken about the Western Cape government's policing of gang violence in the province.

Rupert, who accompanied President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House in Washington on Wednesday night, made comments to United States President Donald Trump about crime in the Western Cape.

Hill-Lewis responded to Rupert's comments at a media briefing related to gun violence in Cape Town, held in Hanover Park on Thursday.

Rupert on Wednesday night told Trump that crime in South Africa was terrible, before aiming a barb at Democratic Alliance (DA) leader John Steenhuisen, who was also present, saying that Steenhuisen won't admit that he runs the Western Cape, where the biggest murder rate was on the Cape Flats.

The mayor held a media briefing in Hanover Park on Thursday morning to highlight what he deemed as the justice system's failure to convict suspects caught with illegal guns and ammunition.

Hill-Lewis said that the city had presented the SAPS and prosecutors with 1,670 related cases since 2021, of which the justice system had only secured 81 convictions.

When asked for a response to Rupert's comments, the mayor answered: "The comment that you're referring to in the Oval Office is mistaken for the simple reason that he knows full well that the criminal justice system, from beginning to end, is in the control of the national state."  

Hill-Lewis called on Rupert to support the Western Cape government's call for a devolution of criminal investigative powers for municipal police officers to help build stronger cases for prosecution.