JOHANNESBURG – It's an unusual move for the African continent's leading democracy: South Africa's president announced earlier this month that he would deploy the military to high-crime areas to fight the scourge of organized crime, gang violence and illegal mining.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said troops would take to the streets – places with the highest rates of violent crime in the world – to address what he described as “the most immediate threat” to South Africa's democracy and economic development.
Without giving any timeline, he said the deployment would be in three of the country's nine provinces. However, some critics say the military deployment could be seen as an admission that Ramaphosa's government is losing the battle.
A top tourist city hit by violence
With a population of approximately 3.8 million, stunningly beautiful Cape Town is South Africa's second largest city and one of its top tourist attractions.
But the neighborhoods on its outskirts, known as the Cape Flats, are notorious for deadly gang violence.
Street gangs with names like the Americans, the Hard Livings and the Terrible Jousters have been struggling for years for control of the illegal drug trade, while they are also involved in extortion rackets, prostitution and contract killings.
Bystanders, including children, are often caught in the crossfire and killed in gang-related shootings. According to the latest crime statistics, the three South African police precincts with the most serious crime rates are in and around Cape Town.
South African Defense Forces patrol in downtown Johannesburg, South Africa on March 27, 2020. Credit: AP/Jerome Delay
Ramaphosa said part of the army would be deployed to the Western Cape province, where Cape Town is located and where statistics say about 90% of the country's gang-related killings occur.
Two other provinces will also see troop deployments, he said: Gauteng, home to South Africa's largest city Johannesburg, and the Eastern Cape province.
Illegal mining is run by organized crime syndicates
The outskirts of Johannesburg and the wider Gauteng province are dotted with abandoned mine shafts and authorities there have long battled illegal gold mining.
He says mining gangs, known as zama zama, are typically run by heavily armed crime syndicates who are ruthless in protecting their operations. They use “informal miners” recruited from desperate and poor communities to go into the mines, searching for precious reserves that remain.
South African National Defense Forces patrol the Men's Hostel in the densely populated Alexandra township, east of Johannesburg, Saturday, March 28, 2020. Credit: AP/Jerome Delay
These gangs are often linked to high-profile violence, including a 2022 case that shocked South Africa when about 80 alleged illegal miners were accused of gang-raping eight women who were part of a music video shoot in an abandoned mine.
Last year, at least 87 miners were killed in a standoff between police and illegal miners at an abandoned mine after police took a heavy-handed approach and cut off their food supplies in an attempt to force them out.
Analysts say illegal miners are often involved in other crimes in nearby communities, and fighting between rival gangs has forced people to abandon their homes and seek safety elsewhere.
Authorities say there are an estimated 30,000 illegal miners in South Africa, working in some of its 6,000 abandoned mine shafts.
The government has seen an increase in illegal mining, which is estimated to be worth more than $4 billion worth of gold per year due to criminal syndicates.
The trade is believed to be controlled mainly by immigrants from neighboring Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, leading to anger in South African communities against both the criminal bosses and foreigners living in the local community.
Previous army deployments linked to apartheid
Ramaphosa is well aware that South Africans old enough to remember the years of forced racial segregation under the apartheid system that ended in 1994 will likely also recall images of troops deployed to suppress pro-democracy protests.
Bearing in mind that painful past, he said it was important not to deploy the military “without any good reason”.
But he said it has now become necessary “due to the increase in violent organized crime that threatens the security of our people and the authority of the State.”
Ramaphosa tried to calm concerns by saying that the army would operate under police command.
There have been other recent deployments of South African troops. In 2023, troops took to the streets after concerns grew over widespread public disorder following a series of truck burnings. And about 25,000 troops were deployed in 2021 to suppress violent riots sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma.
South Africa also used troops to enforce strict lockdown rules during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Crime experts have expressed concern over Ramaphosa's latest deployment plans, stressing that the army is not a long-term solution to fighting crime and that soldiers are not experts in domestic law enforcement.
The country's police minister Firoz Cachalia has supported Ramaphosa and stressed that the military will work in support of the police and “their operations in particular locations”.
He said the deployment is time-limited and aimed at stabilizing areas “where people are losing their lives every day”.
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Associated Press writer Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.