South Africa deploys army forces in areas with high crime rates

In an unusual move for a leading democracy on the African continent, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced last month that he would deploy the army in areas with high crime rates to eradicate the scourge of organized crime, gang violence and illegal mining.

President Ramaphosa said that “soldiers will be deployed on the streets, in places with some of the highest rates of violent crime in the world,” to combat what he described as “the most pressing threat to South Africa’s democracy and economic development.”

He added that troops would be deployed in three of the country’s nine provinces, without specifying a timetable, but some critics say the deployment of the army could be seen as an admission that Ramaphosa’s government is losing the battle.

The stunningly beautiful city of Cape Town, with a population of 3.8 million, is South Africa’s second-largest city and one of its top tourist attractions, but the neighborhoods on the city’s fringes, known as the Cape Flats, are notorious for deadly gang violence.

The street gangs, with names such as “The Americans”, “Hard Living” and “Turple Ghosts”, have been waging battles for years to control the illegal drug trade, while also engaging in extortion, prostitution and murder for money.

Bystanders, including children, are often caught in gunfights and killed in gang-related shootings. According to the latest crime rate statistics, all three police services in South Africa with the highest rates of serious crime are located in and around Cape Town.

Ramaphosa said that “part of the army will be deployed in the Western Cape province, where the city of Cape Town is located, and where statistics show that about 90% of gang-related murders in the country are committed.”

He continued, “Two other provinces will also witness deployments of forces, namely Gauteng Province, which includes Johannesburg, which is the largest city in South Africa, and the Eastern Cape Province.” Abandoned mines are spread in the suburbs of Johannesburg and the broader Gauteng Province. The authorities there have long been confronting illegal gold prospecting operations. The authorities say that the mining gang, known as “Zama Zamas”, is run by heavily armed criminal gangs, and uses methods Brutal to protect its operations.

These gangs use “informal miners” recruited from desperate and impoverished communities to enter the mines, searching for remaining valuable deposits.

Last year, a confrontation between police and illegal miners in an abandoned mine resulted in the deaths of at least 87 miners, after police took a tough approach, cutting off their food supplies in an attempt to force them out.

Analysts say that illegal miners often commit other crimes in neighboring communities, and battles between rival gangs for influence have forced residents to leave 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 mines.

The government has noticed an increase in illegal mining activity, which is estimated to be worth more than $4 billion annually in lost gold seized by criminal gangs.

This trade is believed to be largely dominated by migrants from neighboring Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which has angered South African communities with both criminal gang leaders and foreigners residing in the local community.