President Cyril Ramaphosa’s move to send troops into the country’s crime hotspots to help the police has caught the popular imagination and appears to enjoy overwhelming support in affected communities.
But beyond the euphoria in areas where the police are — in the words of one Westbury, Johannesburg, resident — “useless”, the deployment raises questions about the state of policing and whether soldiers will be effective in the fight against crime.
The Madlanga commission of inquiry into KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi’s claims about criminal gangs being in cahoots with top police officers and politicians has left no doubt that the fight against crime has too often taken a back seat to the pursuit of illicit riches.
If corruption is as pervasive as it appears to be at the top, one can take it for granted that it is happening at lower levels, too. When members of communities claim their local police are corrupt and acting in concert with criminals, one would tend to believe them, given the rot exposed by the Madlanga inquiry.
Past attempts at bolstering the police force with soldiers provide cause for caution in this latest endeavour. No fewer than 11 people were killed by soldiers during the Covid lockdown. Among them was Alexandra resident Collins Khosa, beaten so badly in his yard that he later died of his injuries. Revealingly, an internal military inquiry cleared the soldiers of wrongdoing — only for the high court to later rule that they be suspended. Another man was dragged from his car and shot, apparently attempting to flee, and the army was subject to no fewer than 2,000 reported transgressions. Caution will have to be exercised if we are to prevent a repeat of the Covid outrages.
On the streets, the deployment has raised hopes that the terror inflicted by gangs can be curbed so that residents can go about their daily activities safe from predatory criminal activity
For this reason, acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said the full deployment would take longer than expected because soldiers “are not trained in policing” and may not “understand their role and also the limits of their responsibility”. In spite of assurances that training had been done, parliament was told it had yet to begin.
“Without proper planning, training and co-ordination, joint deployments risk confusion and operational failure,” a report to parliament noted. The deployment will therefore have to be conducted under strict parliamentary oversight, with clear guidelines on the mission, responsibilities and operating procedures.
The services of the army do not come cheaply. Ramaphosa said the deployment would cost about R800m. Because it was announced after the budget presentation in parliament, the funds will have to be taken from other areas of expenditure.
On the streets, however, the deployment has raised hopes that the terror inflicted by gangs can be curbed so that residents can go about their daily activities safe from predatory criminal activity.
Residents lined the streets to greet the soldiers as they moved into Eldorado Park and Westbury, which are among the Johannesburg suburbs terrorised by criminal gangs for many years. Just a week earlier, a gang shooting in Westbury claimed the lives of a 19-year-old man and the mother of a toddler aged 15 months, who was wounded. Westbury residents reported that since the army moved in, they had not been woken by gunshots during the night for the first time in months.
Given the hapless state of our police force, it is hardly surprising that additional resources are needed. But the priority has to remain thorough reform of the police service so that it can roll back the crime wave threatening our futures. Deploying the army may help curb gangsterism and illegal mining, but it should be a temporary measure until the men and women in blue are able to tackle crime with the rigour and determination required.
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