CAPE TOWN – Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement to deploy the South African National Defence Force to assist police in tackling gang violence in the province, while cautioning that military intervention alone cannot solve the crisis.
The deployment, announced during the State of the Nation address, comes as gang-related crime continues to claim lives and destabilise communities across the Western Cape, affecting families, neighbourhoods and local economies.
Winde described the focus on gangsterism and the commitment to lifestyle audits for senior South African Police Service members as “long overdue” measures the province has been requesting.
“The deployment of SANDF is a short-term solution and cannot be a replacement for reforming the SAPS. Investigative powers must be shared with local police structures, vacancies must be filled and crime intelligence must be prioritised,” Winde said.
Western Cape Police Oversight and Community Safety Minister Anroux Marais. reinforced that military deployment cannot substitute for systemic police reform.
“I must reiterate that the deployment of the SANDF cannot be viewed as a sustainable, long-term solution to the deeply rooted problem of gang violence. Lasting change will only be achieved through a well-resourced, properly capacitated and intelligence-driven police service that is able to prevent crime, dismantle criminal networks and secure successful prosecutions,” Marais said.
The Western Cape government has called on President Ramaphosa and the Acting National Minister of Police to prioritise urgent capacitation of SAPS in the province.
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Their demands include strengthening crime intelligence capabilities to ensure proactive and coordinated operations against gang structures, properly resourcing police precincts in gang-affected areas with adequate personnel and specialised units, and ensuring detectives and forensic services receive sufficient support to improve case outcomes and conviction rates.
The province has also renewed its call for the expansion of certain policing powers to municipal level, specifically the investigation of gun and gang-related crimes, which it argues would provide an immediate boost to investigative capacity and strengthen conviction rates.
The Western Cape government said it remains committed to working with all spheres of government to deliver a sustained, intelligence-led and properly resourced response to gang violence that addresses both the immediate crisis and systemic weaknesses enabling criminal networks to flourish.
