De Klerk Foundation urges govt to declare gangsterism a crisis

Christo van der Rheede is the Executive Director of the FW de Klerk Foundation.

The FW de Klerk Foundation has urged government to declare gangsterism a national crisis, following a spate of recent gang-related killings that left six people dead and three injured in Reiger Park, Boksburg.

The foundation, along with crime and security experts, warned that the country’s current approach to tackling gangsterism is failing and called for urgent, coordinated national intervention.

FW de Klerk Foundation Executive Director Christo van der Rheede says, “Just to give you some background to the reason why we asked for it to be declared a national crisis, in just one week in July 2025, 76 people were shot dead in Cape Town alone. Across gang hot spots, nearly 300 murders occurred every quarter, with the Cape Flats dominating the nation’s top murder precincts.”

Rheede adds: “Children are the most innocent victims. Week after week, day after day, we hear of children landing up in the crossfire between competing gangsters. More than one in a day someone is killed in the Western Cape, and in just three months of 2024, 79 young lives were lost in gang-related accidents.”

[ON AIR] The @fwdeklerkfdn has urged the government to declare gangsterism a national crisis, following a spate of gang-related killings that left six people dead and three injured in Reiger Park, Boksburg. Christo van der Rheede: Executive Director of the FW de Klerk Foundation… pic.twitter.com/INEN50qsAw

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