Image Source: The Daily Maverick
Local – Despite the ever-increasing crime rate in South Africa, crime analyst Chad Thomas from IRS Forensic Investigations believes that the deployment of soldiers on civilian streets is not a sustainable solution to the country’s deepening security crisis.
Thomas argued that while military support may offer short-term relief, the country’s core problem lies in failing detective services and a gutted crime intelligence capacity.
The call for military intervention typically surges whenever crime spikes in hotspots such as Westbury, the Cape Flats, or during Zama-Zama headlines.
In his assessment, Thomas outlined what the army can and cannot do, noting that South Africa’s current soldiers are conventionally trained for warfare, not for community policing.
“Soldiers are not trained the same as police. Police are meant to be peacekeepers, peace officers, whereas soldiers are meant to fight a war. Soldiers aren’t there to take prisoners. Soldiers are there to gain territory.”
A Dangerous Mandate Mismatch
The structural gap between military and police mandates creates real dangers when soldiers are placed in residential neighbourhoods.
Thomas warned that civilian casualties could multiply when assault rifles meet urban gang warfare.
“You’re putting a soldier into an urban situation, and you’re going to expect him to take fire and not respond in terms of his training. You’re looking for a firefight that’s going to cause havoc.”
The Band-Aid Approach
South Africa’s current approach to crime hotspots has a fundamental flaw. Saturating an area with police and military forces does not eliminate crime – it displaces it, only to return once resources are redeployed elsewhere.
“We need to address this as a long-term problem, and the only way we’re going to address this as a long-term problem is to make sure people stay behind bars, which means our detective services have to be effective.”
Thomas noted that only 10 to 12 per cent of murder cases and five per cent of rape cases are solved in South Africa, figures he attributed to detectives carrying excessive caseloads with too few resources, rather than a lack of individual competence.
