Cape Town plans to build its own detective branch to fight crime and put criminals behind bars

Cape Town Mayor and DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis said they want to build a Cape Town detective branch to take criminals off the streets.

Hill-Lewis, who announced his candidacy for the DA mayoral position on Saturday, 13 June 2026, shared this idea with Biznews.

He said that unless the detective branch in South Africa is fixed, the country will not turn the tide on crime.

“Rebuilding SAPS will be a 10-year, perhaps even a 15-year project, because the South African Police Service (SAPS), like all other departments, has crumbled,” he said.

“The thing that actually delivers convictions, the thing that gets a criminal off the street and into prison, is a good detective and a good investigation.”

He cited a study in Cape Town that tracked every gun that their officers have taken off the streets. They checked the status of every case in court.

“We found a shocking result: 95% of those cases had gone nowhere. Only 5% led to a conviction,” Hill-Lewis said.

“The cases were either dismissed due to long delays or had been sitting and waiting for ballistics tests from SAPS forensics for 2 years or more.”

He said that the City of Cape Town can do more of its own investigations. “We must win this fight on investigations so that we can look into these crimes,” he said.

He said that their investigations team can produce the investigation and docket reports, and hand over a solid, convictable case to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).

“If we can do that, we can actually get criminals off the streets. It is all well and good to arrest them, but if they are back the next day or the next week, it does not help.”

“Therefore, what I really want to do is build our own Cape Town detective branch, take on this fight regarding investigations, win it, and build our own investigative capacity.”

Cape Town has been expanding its police force

The City of Cape Town has been aggressively expanding its localised policing capacity, driven by a political strategy to plug the gaps left by the overstretched SAPS.

In July 2025, the city welcomed over 700 extra Metro Police officers to the front lines of crime prevention in Cape Town.

The additional Metro Police deployment for Cape Town means five new officers are on the ground in every ward.

“This marks a new era of visible, localised policing that SAPS has been unable to deliver,” the City of Cape Town said.

It explained that the Metro Police officers play a crucial support role in gang-affected areas across the city.

“While Metro Police officers may not have the investigative powers of SAPS, they have been trained on evidence-based policing and have tactical training too,” it said.

In June 2026, nearly 200 Cape Town Metro Police members were promoted or appointed to the rank of sergeant or inspector.

Throughout the process, 107 staff members have been promoted to the rank of sergeant, and 84 are now inspectors.

The introduction of the inspector rank aims to strengthen middle management capacity and provide opportunities for experienced sergeants to take on greater responsibilities.