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Says it is time to deploy the military
By Tajudeen Hamzat
Alarmed by the rising wave of crime and gangs’ activity in the country, the political opposition in South Africa, as represented by the Democratic Alliance party, DA, is leading a protest march to the Nyanga Police Station in the Cape Town area on Thursday.
The march would be led by DA leader, Mmusi Maimane, who has also called for a deployment of troops to the affected areas as had been earlier promised by the ruling ANC.
However, the ANC which is apparently no longer in favour of a troops deployment has criticised the DA saying that its preferred solution is not what is needed at the moment.
“There is no evidence, anywhere in the world, that shows that deploying the military to fight crime works. In most cases, the longer the military stays, they become part of the problem, with a contest between deaths by gangs and deaths by the military,” argues ANC Western Cape provincial secretary, Faiez Jacobs.
“We want to make it clear therefore to Maimane that fighting crime is a complicated affair that is not simply a matter of ‘my gun is bigger than yours’, something that clearly eludes Maimane,” the local party scribe contended.
He also disclosed that as much as R60 million had presently been allocated to tackling gang activity in gang hotspots and that this appropriation needed to be used effectively, through the deployment of crack detectives who could blend into the affected communities in search of criminal intelligence, and all in a bid to identify and isolate gangsters.
South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa
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