In addition to being deployed to combat gangsterism, illegal mining and other criminal activity in Gauteng and the Western Cape, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) will also be deployed to the Eastern Cape.
This is according to acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia, who was speaking on Tuesday during the first day of the parliamentary debates on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address on Thursday last week.
“To strengthen our fight against gang violence, I am deploying the SANDF to support the police, as we did to great effect with illegal mining,” Ramaphosa announced during his address. He said Cachalia and SANDF officials would develop a plan to deploy soldiers to the Western Cape and Gauteng to deal with gang violence and illegal mining.
“I confirm that the national commissioner of the South African Police Service and the chief of our Army met yesterday to finalise the deployment plan, which will begin in the next ten days. And by the direction of the President, I can confirm that the deployment would include the Eastern Cape,” Cachalia said on Tuesday.
“Mr President, this decision is appreciated in communities across our country — from Umtata in the Eastern Cape, to Philippi and Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, Gauteng, including Reiger Park and Westbury,” Cachalia said.
“We have agreed that a method of deployment should learn from past experiences in our own country as well as elsewhere, respect the respective mandates of the South African Police Service and the SANDF, as well as the Constitution, having regard to the imperative obligation to restore calm and stop the killings.”
The coming deployment has drawn criticism that it will not solve the root causes of crime, and criminal activity will rebound once the SANDF leaves. As soldiers do not have the authority or training to make arrests and solve crimes, there have been calls for strengthening the police, particularly anti-gang units.
Cachalia said he has asked the National Police Commissioner to take additional steps to bolster anti-gang units, deploy specialised units of the South African Police Service, and strengthen intelligence-driven approaches to dismantle the networks behind organised crime.
“Multidisciplinary task teams including the National Prosecuting Authority under the able leadership of its newly appointed advocate [Andy] Mothibi, skilled and experienced detectives, the Special Investigation Unit and the South African Revenue Service, will be targeting the leadership, finances, firearms, and logistics of these criminal cartels,” Cachalia said.
According to Head of Communications for the Department of Defence, Siphiwe Dlamini, soldiers will be purely supporting the police. “We’ve deployed before, and the law allows us to be deployed internally as long as it’s in support of the South African Police Service. We operate on the periphery — supporting police during raids, roadblocks and other operations. We are not the lead entity in this regard.”
“This is an intervention in support of SAPS, not without SAPS,” Dlamini told Voice of the Cape, emphasising that the SAPS will be responsible for planning and directing operations while the SANDF provides manpower and logistical support.
Speaking during Tuesday’s State of the Nation Address debate, Economic Freedom Fighters leader Julius Malema said deploying the SANDF was an admission that Ramaphosa had failed to fight crime.
“The people of Gauteng have been terrorised for too long by the so‑called zama zamas. On the deployment of the army, we have no choice but to support you, because you have destroyed law enforcement capacity,” he said, but added he was concerned by the effectiveness of the SANDF “which has been crippled by austerity measures” and “humiliated in war zones abroad”.
“Deploying soldiers is not a voting ploy. It is a risky play that is not solving the actual issue – policing,” African Defence Review Director Darren Olivier told The Africa Report. “The SANDF does not do investigations. The SANDF does not do arrests. It can’t replace the police … The failure of the police and of intelligence continues to be a problem.”
Olivier cautioned that the number of soldiers deployed won’t be enough due to funding shortages and soldiers are only able to be deployed because South Africa is ending its contribution to the United Nations Organisation Stabilisation Mission (MONUSCO) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which will free up around 1 000 soldiers.
Deputy Defence and Military Veterans Minister Bantu Holomisa told the SABC that the number of soldiers to be deployed will depend on police requirements. “For this, we wait for the police to tell us how many people they would like to be assisted with. But normally, you look at a brigade or a company that would do such work. But soldiers, we have enough personnel and equipment, and we are ready.”
Speaking during Tuesday’s debate, Holomisa said: “Let me assure that the time for these thieves is over. Those seeking protection fees by closing clinics in areas like Khayelitsha…their time is up, we are going to deal with them decisively.”
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