Media invitation: Cape Forum to protest at parliament over devolution of policing powers

Civil rights organisation Cape Forum is staging a placard demonstration outside parliament in Cape Town this coming Tuesday (11 August 2026) between 10:00 and 11:00 to demand more policing powers for the Western Cape.

Members of the media are hereby invited to cover the event. For more information, contact Elizma Arendse at 066 473 4431.

The purpose of the protest action is to put pressure on the National Assembly’s Portfolio Committee on Home Affairs, which is scheduled to deliberate on the Electoral Commission Amendment Bill on that day. This bill provides for provincial referendums – a matter on which Cape Forum has approached the Constitutional Court.

In 2024, the court found that Cape Forum should allow parliament a reasonable period of time to complete the process, failing which the organisation could return to Constitutional Hill.

Heindrich Wyngaard, Chairperson of Cape Forum, says the organisation believes that Western Cape residents should have a say in the debate on the devolution of policing powers.

“Unfortunately, while political parties are at loggerheads about this issue, communities are still suffering under unscrupulous criminals, murderers, rapists and gangsters,” he says. “That is why Cape Forum has been pushing for legislation to be enacted that would allow premiers to call provincial referendums – and the first matter on which the view of residents should be tested, we believe, is the matter of the devolution of policing powers.”

Cape Forum has encouraged community members and representatives of political parties to also participate in Tuesday’s planned protest action.