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The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the President’s announcement of the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to assist in combating gang violence in Cape Town and parts of Gauteng. Given the sustained and escalating levels of gang-related crime, decisive intervention is justified. The deployment of SANDF is due to the failure of the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the Western Cape to address gang violence effectively. A properly mandated and time-bound SANDF deployment must be guided by a clear joint and integrated inter-agency cooperative framework between the SANDF and SAPS to stabilise areas plagued by gang violence. It can help stabilise hotspots, restore community confidence and create the operational space needed for law-enforcement agencies to act.

However, stabilisation is not a strategy. The SANDF cannot replace the investigative and intelligence functions of the South African Police Service (SAPS) or the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI). Soldiers can assist with visibility and area control, but they cannot dismantle drug networks, build racketeering cases or secure sustainable convictions. The SANDF deployment may assist in stabilising high-risk areas in the short term, but it is not, and cannot be, a long-term crime-reduction solution.

What South Africa requires instead is structural reform and intelligence-led policing grounded in credible crime intelligence. Most importantly, the expansion of policing powers to competent metropolitan governments within constitutional bounds must happen. The City of Cape Town Metro Police, for example, has demonstrated operational capacity. Granting enhanced forensic authority could serve as a major force multiplier. Where municipal capability exists and measurably improves safety outcomes, it should be enabled within a coordinated national framework.

Short-term stabilisation may calm hotspots, but long-term safety requires empowered and competent institutions, intelligence-driven policing, prosecution-led investigations and measurable accountability. Where capable provincial and local governments, like the Western Cape Government and the City of Cape Town can strengthen safety delivery within constitutional limits, their role should be expanded to reinforce South Africa’s national safety architecture.

The DA is devastated for families losing loved ones. We are fighting for you because we care deeply about making communities safer. We will continue to call for expansion of policing powers to ensure that the scourge of gang violence can be eradicated.

Issued by Lisa Schickerling MP - DA Spokesperson on Police