Joy in Eastern Cape as Ramaphosa extends SANDF deployment

“By the direction of the President, I can confirm that the deployment would include the Eastern Cape,” said acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia as he announced what many communities in Gqeberha’s northern areas have been calling for: the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to help fight crime.

Cachalia was speaking on Tuesday, 17 February, during the first day of the parliamentary debates on the State of the Nation Address (Sona) that President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered last week.

During the Sona, Ramaphosa announced that the members of the SANDF would be deployed to support police in fighting gang violence in the Western Cape and illegal mining in Gauteng.

Read more: ‘We will not be bullied,’ says Ramaphosa in State of the Nation Address

Residents of Gqeberha’s northern areas, as well as Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane, have called for the army to intervene in the province, Daily Maverick reported.

On Tuesday, Cachalia said: “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 10 days. And by the direction of the President, I can confirm that the deployment would include the Eastern Cape.”

This was met with applause from MPs.

Cachalia continued: “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.

“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 police minister has asked the national police commissioner to “take further steps to strengthen the anti-gang units and to deploy specialised units of the South African Police Service ... for which I’m expecting a report in the next two weeks”.

Intelligence-driven approaches

What was critical during this period, Cachalia said, was to “implement steps to strengthen the capabilities that are required for 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.”

Earlier in the debate, Gayton McKenzie, the Patriotic Alliance leader and minister of sport, arts and culture, addressed Ramaphosa, saying: “Thank you for listening to our cries when we said bring the army. We would like you to add the Eastern Cape because people are dying there.”

‘I am truly overjoyed’

Reacting to the news, Helenvale, Nelson Mandela Bay, resident and community activist Rina Potgieter, who has long been vocal about gang violence and fighting for military intervention, said she was “truly overjoyed”.

“For years we have begged, pleaded and prayed, and finally our pleas and prayers have been answered,” she said. “Our community has been tormented by these gangsters for far too long. Their time is over.”

Potgieter said she believed that safety and security would soon be restored in the community, children would be able to play without fear, and residents would once again walk freely through their streets.

DA MPL Yusuf Cassim, the Northern Areas constituency leader, welcomed Firoz’s announcement.

“They have given in to pressure after we mobilised our communities, and it’s important to recognise that our efforts have resulted in this action by the minister,” said Cassim.

“We welcome that the President and the minister have acceded to our principal demand.”

Earlier in the week, the DA in the Eastern Cape held a rally calling on the President — after no mention of military deployment to Gqeberha was made during his Sona — to ask: “Do our lives not matter?”

Read more: Parliamentary oversight visit reveals shocking state of Nelson Mandela Bay’s elite police units

On Tuesday, Premier Mabuyane’s spokesperson, Sonwabo Mbananga, said they welcomed the acceptance of their motivation for the deployment. He previously said that crime statistics in the province warranted the deployment of the SANDF to support the SAPS in combating gang violence and gangsterism in the Northern Areas.

“But in addition to the issues of the Northern Areas, gang violence, which has a devastating impact on communities there and can never be accepted, we also request this deployment of the SANDF to provide support and safeguard some of the key catalytic infrastructure projects currently unfolding in the province that are being developed. Case in point, Mtentu Bridge, among others.

“We envisage that we will also receive support for the third leg of our motivation, for the deployment of the SANDF in the Eastern Cape, in that we require additional support in the management of stock theft, particularly in the eastern parts of the Eastern Cape,” he said.

Read more: Bay gang violence: ‘Our parents are burying us’ say residents, as police downplay crisis

Questions over deployment

Some political leaders Daily Maverick spoke to last week welcomed the deployment of the SANDF, but others, such as National Coloured Congress leader Fadiel Adams, said socioeconomic relief measures, such as jobs and bursaries, should follow the deployment to rid communities of gang violence.

As Daily Maverick’s John Stupart wrote, military intervention to fight crime has not worked in the past and is likely to only further hasten the decline of SA’s armed services.

At the Sona debate, Build One South Africa leader Mmusi Maimane said: “The President announced the deployment of the army to tackle gang violence and illegal mining without it being costed.

“Mr President, if you want to send the army to the Cape Flats, R64-million; if you want to deploy [it to fight] illegal mining, it’s R140-million. So where is the money coming from, Mr President?

“It may be unpopular to say so, honourable members, but we can send the army as a short-term measure; it will not reduce the 64 murders that take place every single day in this country.”

The cost of the deployment has not yet been confirmed.

The debate continues on Wednesday, and Ramaphosa will respond on Thursday. DM