Cachalia says weak schooling contributes to gun and gang violence in Cape Town

CAPE TOWN - Acting police minister, Firoz Cachalia, has highlighted weak schooling outcomes and intergenerational unemployment as some of the reasons behind the ongoing gun and gang violence in Cape Town.

Cachalia said that people must confront the facts about the conditions that have allowed the violence to flourish in the city.

Cachalia and MPs were debating the scourge of gun violence and killings of children and the innocent on the Cape Flats in Parliament on Friday.

He said that many individuals recruited into gangs are youth who have been failed by the system.

But Cachalia has confirmed he has been presented with a “stabilization plan” by the national police commissioner to add more resources in 13 of the worst police precincts.

"Courage requires confronting uncomfortable truths about the conditions that have allowed this violence to flourish; entrenched poverty, intergenerational unemployment, weak schooling outcomes, inadequate mental health services and the breakdown of social institutions that once anchored communities." Cachalia said.