In wake of deadly gang violence in CT, MJC says govt has constitutional obligation to protect citizens
The MJC hosted a meeting with other religious and civil society groups at Islamia College in Lansdowne on Wednesday to discuss solutions to gang violence.
Members of the Muslim Judicial Council and senior SAPS management in the Western Cape during a meeting on 15 July 2025. Picture: Muslim Judicial Council - SA /Facebook
CAPE TOWN - The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) has called on government to uphold its constitutional obligation to protect its citizens.
The call comes in light of gang violence in the Western Cape, which recently left seven people shot dead in Mitchells Plain.
The MJC hosted a meeting with other religious and civil society groups at Islamia College in Lansdowne on Wednesday to discuss solutions to gang violence.
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MJC president, Sheikh Riad Fataar, said a memorandum was handed to Western Cape Police Commissioner Thembesile Patekile this week.
Fataar said the unchecked violence gripping Cape Town's communities was a policing crisis.
"The state bares a non-negotiable duty to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights of all persons, especially the most vulnerable."
Fataar said gang violence was a result of decades-long structural and institutional abandonment.
"The right to life, dignity, and safety is not aspirational, it is constitutional. When that right is systematically denied, we are compelled by faith and by law to act with urgency, clarity and unity."
Fataar said the MJC had given Patekile ten days to respond to the memorandum.