{"id":876473,"date":"2026-09-26T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=876473"},"modified":"2026-09-25T16:58:50","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T14:58:50","slug":"the-western-cape-town-where-crime-is-so-bad-that-its-becoming-known-as-crimefontein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/876473\/the-western-cape-town-where-crime-is-so-bad-that-its-becoming-known-as-crimefontein\/","title":{"rendered":"The Western Cape town where crime is so bad that it’s becoming known as “Crimefontein”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Kraaifontein is increasingly becoming referred to as \u2018Crimefontein\u2019 as repeated violent crimes, gang activity, and the involvement of young people have become part of everyday life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The town forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality but retains its own central business district and encompasses several residential areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These areas include Windsor Park, Scottsville, Peerless Park, Eikendal, Scottsdene, Bloekombos, Wallacedene, Belmont Park, Bonny Brook and Uitzicht.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A large part of Kraaifontein comprises high-density, informal township areas that account for a significant share of reported violent incidents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crime statistics from the South African Police Service (SAPS) and updates from local authorities have consistently placed Kraaifontein among the Western Cape\u2019s high-volume crime precincts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The precinct has also regularly appeared among the top stations nationally for contact and violent crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around 8,900 to 9,000 crimes are reported in the precinct each year, with drug-related offences making up the largest category. These are followed by common assault, aggravated robbery and malicious damage to property.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the South African Police Service (SAPS)\u2019s recent quarterly statistics have shown some year-on-year improvement in murder figures, serious violence remains a concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gang-related shootings, vigilante attacks, and targeted gun violence continue to affect the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gavin Riddles, acting chair of the Kraaifontein Community Policing Forum (CPF) and national chair of the Community Law and Order Foundation, said that violent crime has become normalised. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in an interview with CapeTalk<\/a>, he said the community had become increasingly accustomed to murder, gang violence, and serious crimes involving young people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Riddles said the problem he is concerned about is children becoming involved in crime themselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had a discussion with the crime prevention department of the Department of Health, and it was a concern for me to see that boys, nine-year-olds, 10-year-olds, up to 13, 14, are not in school,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, some children were \u201cwandering around in the streets, at street corners, begging at street corners\u201d, he said, while not being properly reintegrated into their families.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Violent crimes are the norm <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Riddles said minors were increasingly appearing as suspects in serious offences, including attempted murder and armed robbery.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn a day-to-day basis, it’s minors, it’s children that are supposed to be in school,\u201d he said. He also warned that repeated shootings and murders risked making violence appear normal to residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor me, it seems like murders in Kraaifontein are the norm. Sometimes you see that people don’t even act or respond to that, they just take note and go to social media and speak about it,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Riddles stressed that the community should not simply accept this as an unavoidable part of life. \u201cWe must focus on what is truly important to make Kraaifontein a safer haven for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also argued that policing alone could not prevent every violent crime, particularly where victims and alleged perpetrators knew one another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHow can the police be there if the rape suspect is the friend of the mother?\u201d he asked. \u201cHow can the police be there if the accused in an assault case is the husband of a woman?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More attention was therefore needed inside homes and communities, including parenting, conflict resolution and behavioural programmes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to go back to cognitive behavioural training sessions. We have to get families involved in good parenting,\u201d Riddles said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that children and men also needed stronger messages about protecting rather than harming women and children. \u201cThey must understand their role is to protect and not to hurt and to kill,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A town in the Western Cape is becoming referred to as \u2018Crimefontein\u2019 as repeated violent crimes, gang activity, and the involvement of young people have become part of everyday life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":876574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2103862421135749252","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2217437362409996","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17895409764608681","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[26596,853,17501,3024],"class_list":["post-876473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-kraaifontein","tag-south-africa","tag-the-south-african-police-service-saps","tag-western-cape"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876473"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876577,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876473\/revisions\/876577"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}