Police cordon off an area where a 14-year-old learner from Ravensmead High School was shot and killed in an apparent drive-by shooting in Elsies River on 19 November 2024. (Photo: Captain Piet Smit, SAPS) Over the past two days, the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) have scanned hotspot areas in Cape Town and are ready to act in gang-ravaged communities.
In a bid to prevent suspected gang and drug kingpins from moving illicit firearms and drugs out of these areas or fleeing from the law, secrecy veils both the timing and the first gang-ravaged area they will target.
Among the hotspots are Kraaifontein, Manenberg, Mitchells Plain, Lavender Hill, Delft, Khayelitsha, Philippi East and Mfuleni. On the Cape Flats, 23 murders were recorded between Sunday, 8 March and Wednesday, 18 March.
On Thursday, police spokesperson Brigadier Novela Potelwa confirmed that a select contingent of SAPS officials, with SANDF members, is conducting a discreet operational scanning exercise in identified Cape Town hotspots before the much-anticipated deployment.
The exercise, which took place on Wednesday and Thursday (18 and 19 March), involved limited air and ground operations across targeted areas. Authorities stressed that this should not be mistaken for the start of the full SANDF deployment, but rather a critical preparatory phase for integrated operations.
Officials have urged the public to respect the operational space required and to avoid speculation about the presence of security forces in these areas, underscoring the sensitivity and strategic nature of the exercise.
“The element of surprise is crucial to the success of joint SAPS and SANDF operations in hotspot areas. Its purpose is to pounce on alleged gang leaders and suspected drug kingpins and catch them off guard,” Brigadier Potelwa said.
The SANDF was deployed in Gauteng last week to fight gangsterism and illegal mining, but the operation has yet to begin in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape, the other provinces included in the deployment.
The deployment of the SANDF follows President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement in his February State of the Nation Address that the army would support police efforts to curb gang violence.
On Thursday, 12 March, the President further told MPs that the SANDF would act as a “force multiplier”, assisting in high-risk search operations and manning roadblocks and patrolling critical infrastructure, which would free the police to focus on investigations.
This message was reaffirmed at a National Joint Operational and Intelligence Structure (NatJoints) briefing with representatives of the SAPS and SANDF on Sunday, 15 March, where General Rudzani Maphwanya, chief of the SANDF, said they would work jointly with their counterparts in the police service and ensure that the state apparatus was empowered to have the monopoly of force.
Hopes of terrified residents
Terrified Cape Town residents whose children can no longer play freely outside their homes due to gang violence have long been pleading for stronger intervention.
One mother, Conny Jonkers, 61, from Elsies River, another hotspot area – where five people were killed in two days last week, amid violent clashes between rival gangs – said she could not remember the last time she heard neighbours laughing in the streets.
“The rattling sound of gunfire and bodies lying strewn in our community is heart-wrenching. The police cannot stop the killings and we are praying that the army can bring peace to our communities so that our children can play safely,” she said.
Abie Isaacs, chairperson of the Cape Flats Safety Forum, said he believed the deployment of the SANDF to gang-infested areas would make a meaningful difference.
“Our people – especially mothers – are crying. The longer the delay, the more it allows alleged gangsters and drug dealers to reorganise, move illicit guns and drugs and expand their territory, fuelling increasingly deadly turf wars.
“We hope that whoever leads the operation from the command centre is capable of taking the fight to the criminals and leading it decisively,” Isaacs said.
The grim picture of 23 murders committed in 11 days also underscores the urgent need for deployment.
Incidents confirmed during this period, according to police spokesperson Captain FC van Wyk, were:
- On Sunday, 8 March, four people – three men and a woman – were shot dead and another person injured in the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi East. Two gunmen entered a yard on Disa Road at around 9:30pm and fired several shots.
- In Kalksteenfontein, five people were killed in two incidents. In the first, three people were killed and four others injured in a mass shooting on Thursday, 12 March. This was followed by a double murder on Tuesday, 17 March. The motive is believed to be gang-related.
- Elsies River police are investigating two murders and two attempted murders following a shooting in Leonsdale on Wednesday night, 18 March. Two teenage boys, aged 16 and 19, were killed, while a girl and a woman, aged 12 and 63, were injured. In another incident on Tuesday, 17 March, a 42-year-old man was killed and a 54-year-old was injured. The victims were found in a lime-green Toyota Auris. The motive is believed to be gang-related.
- In Delft, three people were gunned down in a suspected taxi-related attack at a taxi rank on Delft Main Road in Voorbrug on Thursday, 12 March. Preliminary reports indicate a Toyota Quantum stopped at the rank. Shots were fired from inside the vehicle before the suspects fled.
- On Monday, 16 March, two people were killed in another alleged taxi-related attack near the Palm taxi rank in Delft South. On Wednesday, 18 March, a 25-year-old man was shot dead in Koonap Street.
- In Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, two men aged 18 and 27 were shot dead and a 26-year-old man was wounded in Tierkloof Street at about 11pm on Wednesday, 18 March. The motive is believed to be gang-related.
- In Steenberg on Wednesday, 18 March, police responded to a shooting in Eltister Road, Lavender Hill, where they found two men, aged 50 and 51, with gunshot wounds. The 51-year-old was declared dead at the scene. DM