OPINION | Johann Rupert spoke the truth, but will he stand with us?

By Faiez Jacobs

During the carefully staged Trump and Ramaphosa media engagement, the mask slipped just for a moment. Johann Rupert, billionaire businessman and usually a careful public communicator, said something unfiltered: “The crime is terrible, Sir. Mr. Steenhuisen won’t admit it. He (DA) runs the Western Cape, where I live, and the highest murder rate is in the Cape Flats.”

White Farm Murders Get Headlines, Cape Flats Killings Get Silenced

Some may dismiss it as casual commentary. I do not. Here are the statistics: In Q4 of 2024, meaning from Oct to December 2024, Cape Town recorded the highest number of gang-related murders in South Africa, with 177 of the 221 national gang-related murders occurring in the Western Cape.

For the whole year of 2024, there were 32 confirmed farm murders, according to SAPS statistics. This constitutes less than 1% of South Africa’s total annual homicide rate, which stood at over 25,000 murders.

For those of us who live, organise, and grieve on the Cape Flats, that statement cracked open a hard truth. It pierced through the political spin and the polished statistics. Because, for once, someone with power and privilege echoed what our communities have long been shouting from the graveyards, from the schoolyards, and blood-stained pavements: The crime is not only real it is structural, it is racialised, and it is ignored.

This is no longer about "crime" in the narrow sense. This is a protracted war against the poor, playing out in Black (Coloured and African) working-class townships. There is no white genocide, but what we all know is happening on the Cape Flats is genocide by neglect. And it has gone on for too long.

GOVERNANCE BY ABANDONMENT

The DA-led Western Cape government has built an entire brand around “clean governance,” innovation, and audit outcomes. But in the shadows of this political theatre, we are burying children. Every weekend. Quietly. Consistently. Systemically.

The Western Cape Safety Plan, funded to the tune of billions, was meant to be the flagship intervention. Instead, we got more glossy pamphlets than actual patrols. More press conferences than police visibility. More image management than impact.

John Steenhuisen and the DA talk about models of excellence. But what model allows a child to be gunned down on their way to school? What model allows entire neighbourhoods to be ruled by fear, while provincial leaders talk about “best practices” from the safety of their press podiums?

What’s worse, their silence has been strategic. In some spaces, the DA wins by not intervening. Where the violence rages, voter turnout drops. Organised communities fracture. Cynicism deepens. And in the vacuum, power is consolidated by those who speak loudly but say nothing.

THE POLITICS OF TRUTH AND THE COST OF SILENCE

Rupert’s comment was raw. And whether calculated or spontaneous, it opened the door. The real question is: what will he do with that door now?

Because speaking the truth is not enough. It’s time to act.

A CONCRETE PLEA TO MR. JOHANN RUPERT

Mr. Rupert, you named the pain. Now, I respectfully urge you to walk with us into the crisis you acknowledged. Not as a benefactor, but as a citizen with influence, reach, and responsibility.

This is my call to you from one proud South African to another. From a child of the Cape Flats to a man with capital and convening power.

Let’s build a Cape Flats Compact. A real one. With real impact. Here’s what you can do:

1. Co-convene a Cape Flats Safety & Dignity Summit: Use your foundation, network, and weight to bring together business leaders, grassroots organisers, credible NGOs, youth leaders, mothers and survivors of gang violence. Let them speak. Let us plan. In our own voice.
2. Establish a Dedicated Economic Inclusion Fund for at-risk youth in the Cape Flats earmarked for township-led entrepreneurship, trauma support, skills development, and family-strengthening projects. Run it transparently. Partner with credible, community-rooted facilitators.
3. Fund a Peace Economy Pilot: Let’s model what a township peace economy could look like. Recruit reformed gang leaders as community safety workers. Create trauma-informed spaces. Build safe zones around schools. Show the country what dignity-driven safety looks like.
4. Hold the DA Government Accountable: Not from the sidelines, but from your position as a public figure who lives in this province. Use your influence to demand that the province shift from political branding to place-based interventions.

This is not charity. This is restitution. This is legacy. This is what solidarity looks like when it moves from comment to commitment. Let's put our money where our mouth is. Let’s show up…

AND TO THE ANC: STEP UP OR STEP ASIDE

I have served in Parliament. I have served the ANC. And I know our failings too.

The ANC cannot grandstand from Luthuli House while townships burn. It cannot outsource its responsibility to mayors and MECs who have no mandate beyond survival. The ANC needs a Cape Flats strategy, a dedicated intergovernmental plan, and a political leadership team embedded in the crisis, not observing it from afar. Trust and credibility are earned by being present and doing right.

If we are serious about rebuilding trust, we must return to the ground. Not for votes. For justice.

A FINAL WORD: FORGOTTEN, BUT NOT SILENCED

The Cape Flats is not just a murder map. It is a memory. It is a movement. It is a miracle still holding on.

I’ve seen grandmothers run community soup kitchens with nothing but faith and borrowed salt. I’ve seen youth clubs offer sanctuary in backyards riddled with bullet holes. I’ve buried friends, comrades, schoolmates and still believe we can turn this around. We are proud, we are resilient, and we shall not only overcome, we shall prosper.

But not without courage. Not without cross-sector commitment. And not without those who benefit from privilege, finally putting that privilege to work.

Mr. Rupert, you spoke. Now stand with us. Let your truth become part of our transformation.

Because if we do not act now, we are not just losing lives, we are losing the soul of the Cape Flats.

*Faiez Jacobs is a former Member of Parliament for Athlone PCO and Cape Flats Son

**The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of Independent Media or IOL.

Editor’s Note: This op-ed was submitted by the author in response to public remarks made by Johann Rupert during the Trump Ramaphosa media event and ongoing gang violence in the Western Cape.