South Africa's president has authorized a one-year deployment of the military to fight crime in some violence-hit areas of the country.
The move underlined how Africa's leading economy has struggled to reign in high rates of violent crime.
A look at deployment by the numbers:
Deployed troops: 2,200
South Africa's Constitution requires President Cyril Ramaphosa to advise Parliament on his military deployment orders. He said in a notice to lawmakers that 2,200 troops had been deployed to assist police in law enforcement operations related to two specific criminal threats: gang-related violence and illegal mining run by criminal syndicates.
Duration of deployment: 13 months
Ramaphosa said troops would be deployed on the streets from March 1 this year to March 31, 2027.
Cost: $49.2 million
While some opposition parties initially questioned the cost of the operation, Ramaphosa's decision to use the military against crime has been largely welcomed. Some crime-ridden communities cheered the troops on the streets of Johannesburg, the country's biggest city, when they were deployed for the first time last week.
Number of provinces: 5
Troops will be deployed to five of South Africa's nine provinces. These include Gauteng, where the economic center is Johannesburg, and the Western Cape, where the second largest city of Cape Town is located.
The army will also work to tackle crime in the North West, Free State and Eastern Cape provinces.
Problematic crimes targeted: 2
Ramaphosa said the deployment would focus specifically on helping police tackle the problems of gang-related violence and illegal mining.
Gang violence leads to hundreds of murders each year in South Africa, particularly in the poor areas known as the Cape Flats on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa's top tourist city.
Authorities estimate that there are about 30,000 illegal miners working in some of South Africa's 6,000 disused gold and other mines. Authorities say mining gangs are often armed and violent to defend their territory and are controlled by criminal syndicates.
Ramaphosa said that gang violence and illegal mining are the two organized crimes that most threaten South Africa's democracy and economic development.
Objective: 4
The police, who will be in charge of the troops during the law enforcement deployment, say they have four key operational objectives: reducing crime in designated problem areas, arresting criminals, recovering illegal firearms and explosives, and seizing narcotics.
Last posted: 3 years ago
This is not the first time South Africa has used the military to fight crime, although it is the longest deployment in recent years. In 2023, Ramaphosa deployed more than 3,000 soldiers for a month to some key crime scenes.
Later that year, the army was deployed following fears of widespread civil unrest following a series of truck burnings on major roads.
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AP Africa News: https://apnews.com/hub/africa