President Cyril Ramaphosa may soon deploy the army to gang infested areas in the Western Cape.
Speaking in a recent interview, Ramaphosa said the military could complement civilian police efforts to curb gang violence in troubled areas.
“The army can come in to support the police, and the police also have to be armed with good intelligence. Criminal intelligence and crime intelligence have to be on site to know who the wrongdoers are, and then the other forces come in their wake to give support, so that gang violence is one of those challenges that we are facing.”
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While some have expressed reservations, many believe this is a necessary step to bring calm to the streets of Western Cape neighbourhoods. Imraahn Mukaddam, an activist based in Elsies River, said it was no silver bullet, but could be worthwhile if done correctly.
“With the additional assistance of the army, we can bring relative calm. It has worked in the past, but it’s not the ultimate solution; the moment the army leaves, you are left with a vacuum,” he cautioned.
“If we can get the army in, it would be to restore calm and to give the police and security agencies enough time to get their ducks in a row and focus on how they can be more proactive [in] rooting out the cancer of gangsterism, drugs and guns that is so pervasive in both the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape.”
Image via QZ.
