In the State of the Nation Address on 12th February, President Ramaphosa announced: “To strengthen our fight against gang violence, I am deploying the South African National Defence Force to support the police, as we did to great effect with illegal mining. I have directed the Minister of Police and the SANDF to develop a tactical plan on where our security forces should be deployed within the next few days in the Western Cape and Gauteng to deal with gang violence and illegal mining.”

A few days later, in response to pleas from local politicians and some community leaders, the Minister of Police told Parliament that soldiers would also be deployed to parts of Gqeberha where gang violence is prevalent.

There is no doubt that there is a crisis in gang affected communities. Between April and September last year, there were 575 gang murders in the Western Cape, the great majority of them in Cape Town. It has become commonplace for Monday morning news bulletins to list ten, twelve or more gang-related deaths over the preceding weekend. The lawlessness associated with ‘zama-zamas’ is also apparent, and some recent mass shootings in Gauteng have been attributed to rivalries among illegal miners.

Paper by the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference Parliamentary Liaison Office