Ramaphosa says SANDF deployment is paying off in crime fight
President Cyril Ramaphosa during the question-and-answer session in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Image: File
On Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the decision to deploy the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist police operations was justified, with early positive results emerging.
Responding to oral questions in the National Assembly, Ramaphosa said the deployment of soldiers in the Western Cape, the Eastern Cape, North West, Gauteng and the Free State has yielded significant progress in stabilising priority hotspots and also disrupting crime.
“It is a bit too early to draw definitive conclusions regarding the impact and also giving the actual numbers. However, indications suggest that a reduction in selected crime categories within the operational areas has taken place,” he said.
Ramaphosa was responding to DA chief whip George Michalakis, who asked whether the roll-out of Operation Prosper had succeeded in meeting its objectives.
During his State of the Nation Address two months ago, the President announced the deployment of the SANDF to deal with gang violence and illegal mining.
He told the MPs that more than 1,000 arrests have been effected with 550 in the Western Cape and 238 in the Eastern Cape.
“There has been a strong focus on dismantling drug networks and illegal mining syndicates, alongside arrests that are linked to serious violent crimes.
“Now operational intensity has been sustained in all this through the execution of over 38,000 coordinated actions, including roadblocks and targeted tracing operations resulting in the seizure of 18 firearms, 792 rounds of ammunition and 186 explosives.”
Ramaphosa also said while there is tangible progress towards reclaiming territory and stabilising communities, there was a need for a government-wide and society-wide effort to prevent crime and address its social and economic causes.
However, Michalakis, who referred to some statistics, said the situation has actually gotten worse since the deployment of the soldiers on the Cape Flats while the cost of the Operation Prosper was R823 million.
“Can you look the mothers who lost children killed on the Cape Flats, Westbury and other places since the start of Operation Prosper, in the eye and say to them that it is working?” asked Michalakis in a follow up.
Ramaphosa said in response that he would be able to look to those mothers and offer his condolences and sympathies, and also inform them that the government is doing much more to bring down the levels of gang violence.
“Of course, we can politicise this matter as much as we like. The fact of the matter is that when lives are lost, we should all be saying we want the police and the SANDF to succeed.
“That is why I say it is a government-wide and community-wide effort that will bring down the levels of this criminality. We are scaling up our intelligence services.”
Ramaphosa stated that the deployed soldiers and the police were employees, working way beyond their normal work hours and who have to be accommodated away from their families and have to be transported.
Michalakis asked if fixing the police by devolving policing function to provinces and local governments was the solution, Ramaphosa said police were constitutionally empowered to fight crime.
He charged that it was a false notion to think that the police in particular areas do not have the power.