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South African Defense Force soldiers secure a perimeter around an inn in Manenberg as police conduct an operation involving door-to-door raids. EPA / NIC BOTHMA
The Western Cape authorities have called for the deployment of the army to fight violent crimes on the Cape Flats 13 times in the last six years. On Thursday, the DA hopes for a lucky 14th time case, as it leads a #SendTheArmyNow march from Nyanga to Manenberg making the same call to the government. Former police minister Fikile Mbalula seemed to support this idea. The current Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, is not in agreement. Community groups in the affected areas have some reservations.
It is time for the national government to dispatch the military to deal with gangsterism, drugs and violence in the Cape Flats.
It is the opinion of the DA, and on Thursday, July 19, the party expects to "Cape Town residents in a march to the Nyanga police station to boost the number of people in the city. ;call."
This is not a new idea. Western Cape Premier Helen Zille first asked former President Jacob Zuma to deploy the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in 2012.
Spokesman from Zille, Michael Mpofu, stated Daily Maverick The Prime Minister wrote "at least 12 letters requesting the deployment, tracking of deployment requests and requests for meetings regarding the deployment of SANDF".
The appeal appears to have had receptive ears during the tenure of former Minister Fikile Mbalula, Mbalula told Parliament in October 2017 that the presidency had been asked to approve the deployment of the In the sensitive areas of crime, not only in the Western Cape, but also in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. He said at the time that SANDF members would not be used as police substitutes, but as reinforcements.
Yet, in May 2018, the police minister Bheki Cele abandoned the plans. The DA is now calling on the government to honor Mbalula's pledge, which they say has been taken "formally and formally" three times.
Exactly where the DA wants the soldiers to go, what tasks they want them to undertake and for what period Wednesday, Odette Caron, provincial spokesman for the DA, declared Daily Maverick that the party wanted the army to be deployed in "areas of the Western Cape most prone to violent crime". , gangsterism and drugs – it's no coincidence that the march is taking place on the Cape Flats.
Caron says that the period during which the army would remain on the Cape Flats would be at the discretion of President Cyril Ramaphosa, whose responsibility would be to inform Parliament of the deployment.
She pointed out, however, that a military presence would be a "temporary measure" to supplement the police rather than replace them.
The DA wants to see soldiers badisting the police with blockades during SAPS operations, escorting such service providers as emergency medical services, protecting facilities like railroads, taxis and bus stations, and by monitoring essential services such as clinics and post-school care facilities.
Activity ".
The army was used in this manner before, for very limited periods.In 2015, soldiers were sent to areas such as Manenberg as part of the military. Operation Fiela, where they helped the metro and the national police raid for rifles and drugs
The journalist Caryn Dolley wrote just two days later that the gangs had intensified the battles in Manenberg, police "recognizing that the gangsters had intensified their violence to demonstrate that they controlled the authorities, not the authorities"
Previously, it was necessary to exercise caution in deploying the military in areas civilians because of the fact that soldiers receive training different from that of the police.
What appears to have deterred the Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, from acting on the commitments of his predecessor Cele told an audience in Mitchells Plain in May 2018 that, based on his experience as a former soldier, he doubted that the soldiers had the expertise to make a positive contribution.
"I was never trained to control the crowds, I was never trained to make arrests and make arrests in communities," said Cele. In response to a question from ] Daily Maverick SANDF spokesman Mafi Mgobozi confirmed that members of the defense forces were not trained in such aspects as crowd control.
19659021] Crowd control is the responsibility of the SAPS, "said Mgobozi, adding that the army could only be deployed" in a supportive role "to the police.
control crowds or make arrests. It is simply hoped that the presence of the army will deter enough criminals to release the police "to perform their investigative and arrest duties".
The vision of soldiers and tanks in the streets of Western Cape is often emotional. "
" The army can not guarantee peace on the Cape Flats, "said Faiez Jacobs, secretary of the ANC for the Western Cape, in these terms: Daily Maverick .
" The military is not trained to prevent and investigate gang crimes. SAPS have an interest in reorganizing and working with people who know something about gangs.
But the DA and the Western Cape government are not the only ones to have called – at the end of 2017, the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fedusa) marched before Parliament with a plea similar.
No doubt to try to prevent the DA 's march, the Bheki Cele Police Minister announced Thursday a press conference to explain "the impact and success" of the Thunder operation. , a police initiative launched in May 2018 to suppress gangsterism on the Cape Flats.
The DA 's march schedule, less than a year before the general election, opens the party to accusations of opportunism. ] The chairman of the Manenberg Forum on Security, Roegshanda Pascoe, said: Daily Maverick . " Last year, when we were under gang warfare, yes, we called in the army at the time and no one supported us." [19659004] Martin Makasi, spokesman for the Nyanga Community Police Forum, expressed his concerns
We do not know what informs their decision to walk now, "Makasi said Daily Maverick .
" The SAPS and the community working together in Nyanga decreased crime in the first quarter of the fiscal year.We do not want an army that carries automatic weapons on the streets." Makasi claims that Cape Town City police services are not visible in Nyanga.
" We say that they function as if they were firefighters – they only come here by invitation. It is easy to walk and say that the government has to deploy an army, but they themselves can not deploy their own structures in Nyanga. "
Pascoe says that provincial authorities should address the underlying causes of gangsterism and drug" quick fix "of a military deployment.
But she is not opposed in principle to the idea of the defense force sent to the Cape Flats. "
" The army is trained to go to war a battlefield, "she says.
" Well, where we stay, there is a great war going on." DM
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