Operation Prosper has failed to make a significant impact on gang violence and mass shootings in the Western Cape, with more than 30 murders recorded in the region over the past weekend, Police Portfolio Committee chairperson Ian Cameron says.
Cameron said there had been “no real decrease in mass shootings” since the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was deployed under Operation Prosper, which is intended to support efforts to combat gang violence and other serious crimes.
“Operation Prosper is not prospering. It hasn’t shown any real result in terms of curbing any form of gang violence or extortion group violence, whatever the case may be,” Cameron said in an interview with the SABC.
He said the situation appeared to be worsening in some weeks, with more than 100 murders recorded in the region over a seven-day period the previous week.
“Last week, the week before last, we had over 100 murders in the region in the space of seven days,” Cameron said.
He said the lack of progress was partly because authorities were “fighting blind”, with criminals allegedly aware of police operations and weaknesses in the co-ordination of deployments.
“I think that, unfortunately, on ground level, criminals are aware when the police are going to go for them, whether they are just poorly co-ordinated, and I think a lot of the work is haphazardly done,” he said.
The deployment had also not involved enough soldiers to significantly disrupt gang activity, while intelligence-led operations were lacking.
“We haven’t actually seen the numbers of soldiers that we needed to have to really destabilise gang activity,” Cameron said.
There had been some successes, including drug seizures and the recovery of firearms, but these had not translated into the arrest of gang leaders or the dismantling of entire gangs.
“Yeah, we’ve had some successes here and there with a reasonable drug find or seizure or some firearms, but nothing has seen an impact on the arrest of kingpins, stopping entire gangs from doing what they do,” he said.
Political analyst Professor Theo Neethling, a research fellow in the Department of Political Studies and Governance at the University of the Free State, said Operation Prosper had provided some short-term visibility but had not been a complete success.
“There was some short-term visibility, but it hasn’t been a complete success until now, because the major gangs remain, and the fact is the violent crime continues unabated,” he said.
Neethling said the temporary military support had not been accompanied by permanent policing reform or high-level prosecutions.
“We also don’t see any high-level prosecutions. We don’t see dismantled gang networks, and that is what is needed.”
He said the operation’s costs were also increasing while street-level violence continued.
“The operational costs are also now going to more than, I think, R800 million, of course, but (there is) persistent street-level violence,” Neethling said.
“So I think it’s merely policing visibility, but nothing really more than that,” he said.
Neethling said authorities needed to target gang bosses, financiers and illegal gun suppliers while improving intelligence-driven co-operation between SAPS and the military.
“I think we need to see the targeting of those behind the mess, and I don’t think that is happening,” he said.
“We also need to see much improved intelligence, intelligence-driven operations between the South African Police Service and the military,” but the results of Operation Prosper did not indicate that sufficient progress was being made, Neethling said.
He said intelligence was key to addressing organised crime.
“Things are just going on and on and on,” he said.
Neethling also called for a combined security crackdown alongside socio-economic interventions in marginalised communities where gangs operate.
“If that is not going to happen, we will sit with these problems for years, and what we’re doing is actually just putting plasters on the problem,” he said.
Cameron said both SAPS and SANDF needed to conduct a period of introspection over the operation, including how available funding was being used.
He had heard concerns about the budget for Operation Prosper but had not yet discussed the matter formally.
Cameron also questioned whether police could continue requesting additional funding while failing to demonstrate responsible use of existing resources.
“We keep asking for more money every year when we go through the budget process. More money is demanded or requested. But unfortunately, we look at, for example, fruitless and wasteful expenditure,” he said.
He said fruitless and wasteful expenditure or irregular expenditure in police supply chain management had increased by 140% in the previous financial year.
“It would be unfair to then constantly say ‘I need more money, but I’m not able to act responsibly with the money that I already have to my disposal’,” Cameron said.
University of KwaZulu-Natal political analyst Zakhele Ndlovu said the continued violence indicated that the SANDF deployment was not achieving its intended objective.
“Clearly, the deployment of the SANDF is not achieving its intended objective,” Ndlovu said.
He said deploying the SANDF to the Cape Flats was a poor decision from a policing and security perspective, arguing that soldiers were not trained to solve crime.
“Soldiers are not trained to solve the problem of crime,” Ndlovu said.
He called for Operation Prosper to be ended and for SAPS to strengthen its crime intelligence capabilities and target criminals.
“Operation Prosper should be aborted because it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money. The SAPS should beef up its crime intelligence and go after the bad guys,” he said.
Ndlovu also linked his assessment of the security situation to the evidence emerging from the Madlanga Commission.
“The more I watch the Madlanga Commission the more I realise that we live a Kakistocracy-cum-Mafia state,” Ndlovu said.
Cameron said Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police would conduct a joint oversight visit with specific police units and the SANDF to assess the realities on the ground under Operation Prosper.
“This coming Friday, we’re actually doing a joint oversight visit to parts of specific units of the police, as well as the SANDF, regarding Operation Prosper, to go and determine for ourselves what the ground-level realities are that the members face,” Cameron said.
He said leadership and co-ordination remained significant concerns.
“Unfortunately, I think leadership has been significantly lacking. There is no real co-ordinated strategy. Even though they say otherwise, we can see through the results that it is not successful at the moment,” Cameron said.
Cameron added that the response to gang violence could not be separated from broader social and economic interventions.
He said crime statistics should not be viewed solely as a policing issue, and called for an integrated response involving policing, social development and justice.
“You can never divide them,” Cameron said.
However, he cautioned against attributing the brutality associated with extortion and gang-related crime solely to socio-economic conditions.
“The level of brutality that we’re seeing is very difficult to blame on socio-economic elements,” he said.
Cameron said some people arrested for such crimes lived “lavish lives” and were not necessarily experiencing poverty or hardship.
“They literally are evil, evil criminal predators, and they flourish on preying on vulnerable citizens,” he said.
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Hope Ntanzi
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