Residents question Ramaphosa's decision to exclude Nelson Mandela Bay from army deployment
“Do our lives not matter?”
That is the question being asked by organisations, politicians and ordinary residents in gangster-ridden Nelson Mandela Bay after President Cyril Ramaphosa deployed the SA National Defence Force only to Gauteng and the Western Cape on Thursday.
In his 10th State of the Nation Address, Ramaphosa announced that soldiers would be sent into crime-hit areas in those two provinces to assist police in tackling illegal mining and rising gang violence.
But he made no mention of the Eastern Cape.
According to the latest quarterly crime statistics released earlier this week, 1,032 people were murdered in the Eastern Cape between July and September — working out to roughly 11 people killed every single day.
Nelson Mandela Bay featured prominently in those figures.
New Brighton, one of the province’s largest and oldest townships in Nelson Mandela Bay, recorded 52 murders during those three months, making it the province’s worst-affected area for killings and ranking seventh nationally.
Depending on where you are in the township, New Brighton is about a five-kilometre drive from Zwide — the neighbouring community where Siya Kolisi, the Springbok captain who lifted the Rugby World Cup for SA, was born and raised.
Kwazakhele, also in Nelson Mandela Bay and bordering New Brighton, followed closely behind on the national list.
The metro has for years been plagued by gang turf wars, hit-style shootings and stubbornly high murder rates, so much so that in 2024 it was labelled SA’s most dangerous city based on its killing rate.
It is in this same metro that acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said last month that police were not yet in a position to put an end to gangsterism.
One of the most prominent voices against crime in the Bay was Pamela Mabini, a Kwazakhele-based activist and founder of the Maro Foundation.
She once publicly challenged former police minister Bheki Cele to walk the streets of Kwazakhele without a heavy security detail, saying he should see for himself how residents were living under the threat of gangs and drug dealers.
On March 7 2025, she was shot dead while sitting in her car outside her home.
Almost a year later, the alleged mastermind behind her murder has still not been arrested.
The man believed to have pulled the trigger was later killed, but for her family there has been no closure.
The city’s northern areas — including Gelvandale, Algoa Park and Helenvale — saw a deadly surge in violence in the latter part of last year, with 118 people killed between August and December, according to the Spiritual Crime Prevention group.
The bloodshed has spilled into the new year.
During the week of January 5 to 11 alone, about 40 people were murdered across the metro, according to community sources.
The northern areas remain among the most dangerous parts of the city, with gang violence deeply entrenched in several communities.
As previously reported by IOL, the situation in Algoa Park was so severe that the local police station closes its gates at night due to fears of gang retaliation and attacks.
IOL also reported that rising crime in Nelson Mandela Bay was stretching police fingerprint experts to their limits, with longer delays in attending crime scenes. Police have urged residents not to disturb scenes while waiting for forensic teams.
Police spokesperson Andre Beetge said at the time: “The SA Police Service acknowledges that there are currently longer delays in dispatching LCRC members to certain crime scenes.
“This is not due to a reduction in staff or vehicles, but rather a result of a general increase in the number of crime scenes requiring attendance.”
ANC MPL and Sanco provincial secretary Dr Tony Duba said, considering what has been happening in the northern areas — and the fact that former MPL Christian Martin even slept outside the State House in Bhisho to highlight the devastating effects of gang violence — it was disappointing that the metro had not been included in the deployment.
Sanco is the SA National Civic Organisation.
Various Nelson Mandela Bay Community Policing Forums have similarly warned that without visible reinforcement, trust in the criminal justice system will continue to erode.
On Monday, the DA, together with residents of Nelson Mandela Bay, will hold a rally against gangsterism in the metro’s northern areas under the banner: “Do our lives not matter?”
The protest will take place outside the Gelvandale Police Station and will be led by northern areas constituency leader and DA shadow MEC for community safety, Yusuf Cassim.
“Communities in the northern areas, alongside the DA, have long called for priority intervention to fight out-of-control gangsterism in the Northern Areas, yet the President turns a blind eye,” Cassim said.
“Sending in the army would offer only short-term relief, but it would bring much-needed stability to an area that has, for all intents and purposes, become a war zone.”
IOL