Cape Flats communities and political parties have said that they are tired of all the ‘army deployment talk’ and lack of clear action when it comes to tackling the violence on the Cape Flats. 

This comes after Premier Alan Winde recently tabled a report on gang infiltration, and he answered questions from the Patriotic Alliance’s Donna Stephens about potential SANDF deployment on the Cape Flats.

“I think that’s a very interesting question, and maybe it is something that you should put to us to discuss at the Safety Council. (My) immediate gut answer to that is, I don’t think so.

“I requested this once before. I’ve been in government for quite a long time, and in 2019, just as I became the premier. We were having shootings across the Cape Flats just before an election again, and it feels a bit like deja vu,” Winde said.

“And I said, ‘We need the military’. And that wasn’t the first time. That was, I think, the second or third time that the military in the last 30 years has been brought in to deal with the gang violence.

“It didn’t have the effect that I was hoping it was going to have. It was, as one would imagine, what happens when the military comes in: they stabilise the system, and then the police come in to do what they need to do.

“I think the real problem is that even when that happens, the military is trained for something else. They’re not trained for policing, but let them do what they’re trained for, let them secure an area, and let the police do what they need to, but then we’ve got too few police, and we’ve got too few military people as well,” he explained.

“I mean, the military system is totally underfunded and totally inefficient. And so you’re gonna add another inefficiency to another inefficiency.. (in) my gut, I don’t think it is actually going to make a difference.”

Fight Against Crime Spokesperson Jay Jay Idel said he finds it “quite something” that the premier leans on his experience in government, “when, during that same time, more than 400 people were killed this year in just the top 30 stations in the very province he leads”.

“Experience means nothing if the outcomes on the ground look like this.

“Calling for the SANDF isn’t rocket science. People are being murdered every weekend in numbers…it’s so predictable it feels scheduled. The SAPS and the City simply don’t have the manpower to fight gang violence while also handling GBV, femicide, rape, hijackings, robberies and everything else.

“Entire stations are regularly emptied because every member is stuck managing multiple crime scenes. SANDF stabilises the chaos fast, so proper policing and community plans can actually function,” Idel said.

“At this point, it sounds like the premier is effectively admitting he doesn’t have an answer for gang violence on the Cape Flats.”

Elsies River CPF chairperson Marius Fourie said: “Deployment of the military on the Cape Flats is a very serious move, and all role players will need to be on board for this. The military does not have the training to be a police force; however, they do have the skills to be a peacekeeper. They can be deployed at many hotspots and even smash and grabbing spots. They are there and should be utilised. 

“These gangsters are not using hands, but military grade weapons to attack our community. 

“On a recent WhatsApp poll in Elsies River, the community overwhelmingly voted to deploy the military. Whilst it is a very controversial question, it is what the community is asking for,” Fourie said.

Mitchell’s Plain Community Policing Forum (CPF) Public Relations Officer, Linda Jones, said accused Winde of not having a ‘clear answer to our problem and no political will to eradicate crime in the Western Cape’.

“They must just admit they have no real solution to the problem. They are unable to solve it. Why? Because nothing for us without us. They have, over the years, proven they are just good at coming out to us, having talk shops and going away, and it is business as usual once they get our vote. 

“We are fed up with being seen as the easy targets. Our children are killed, and we can’t enjoy freedom. We are worse off than the inmates in prisons,” Jones said.

GOOD Secretary-General Brett Herron said, given the war zone that the people on the Cape Flats are living in, it is unsurprising that there is a call for the presence of the military again.

“However, many residents will remember that the army’s presence did not result in any substantial reduction in gang-related violence. Many residents told me directly that the gangs were not intimidated by the army’s presence and that some even took shots at the army.

“It is important to understand the call for the symbol of a force of power because communities are living with fear and desperation. But the army is not trained in crime prevention. They are trained for military combat,” Herron said.

“What we need urgently is a functional and clean police service trusted by the communities they are appointed to serve… The army won’t fix the root causes of this gang violence.”

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