With the rise of crime rates and gang violence in the past few years, the South African government announced the deployment of troops to crime and illicit mining hotspots during the State of the Nation Address on 12 February, reports Cape {town} Etc.
Initially scheduled to run for a year until 31 March, the plans saw a temporary delay. On 18 March, SAPS announced that an exercise would be held in Cape Town ahead of the upcoming deployment, scheduled for 18 to 19 March.
This joint operational scanning exercise between SAPS and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) involves police and military teams running ground and aerial assessments to identify crime hotspots in Cape Town for the upcoming deployment.
‘This exercise should not be mistaken for the actual commencement of deployment of the SANDF,’ SAPS national spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa said. ‘The operational exercise currently underway is essential preparation for the integrated forces ahead of the actual deployment.‘
SAPS urges that the operation is essential in ensuring coordination between the joint deployment, with troops assessing high-risk areas that have historically experienced high rates of gang-related crime.
SAPS stated that the public should not interfere with the exercise, with Potelwa saying, ‘Members of the public are urged to respect the operational space these forces require and refrain from speculating about their presence in the targeted areas’
The Cape Flats area has been identified as a hotspot area, with the chairperson for the Cape Flats Safety Forum, Abie Isaacs, stating that this is a good opportunity to deal with the high crime rate of the area.
Isaacs states, ‘As the Cape Flats Safety Forum, we have noted with concern the current escalation in shootings on the Cape Flats. We call for the immediate deployment of the SANDF to stabilise the affected areas that have seen gang-related shootings.’
‘While the SANDF will be deployed, this will also give us an opportunity as civil society to go back to the drawing board and look at intervention programmes, and also in vain for the government to go back and relook at their strategy.’
Following the reported delay, the Western Cape Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety, Anroux Marais, stated on 18 March that the deployment is set to begin by 1 April.
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Picture: @SAgovnews / X
