Murders up 14% as soldiers patrol
The Western Cape’s murder rate increased by 14% during the army’s twomonth deployment on the Cape Flats, which is due to end tomorrow.
In the 55 days between July 15 and Saturday September 8, the provincial forensic service recorded 682 murders, or 12.4 a day.
Crime statistics released this week for the year to March 31 reported 3,974 murders in the Western Cape, or 10.9 a day.
As the army’s deployment ends, fears of an escalating gang war have prompted Cape Town politicians to call for an extension — but this time with a clearer mandate.
“The SAPS is massively underresourced in this province, and the SANDF provides additional boots on the ground and resources, provided they are properly used,” said Western Cape premier Alan Winde.
“It is clear that the army deployment has yet to make a dent in the enormous crime problem this province faces.
“We have requested that specific conditions, aimed at making better use of the SANDF resource and improving the efficiency of the operations, be met should their deployment be extended.”
On Friday, the SANDF denied the operation had failed. “[It] is a success since the SAPS have been able to access areas they found difficult to reach due to security challenges,” said spokesperson Siphiwe Dlamini.
“They are now able to comprehensively conduct their operations and make arrests and recover drugs, illicit goods and all kinds of weapons. This also allows the SAPS to gather intelligence in crime-ridden areas.”
City of Cape Town mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith said the murder rate could have been far higher without the SANDF deployment. “Those numbers could have been double,” he said. “We are deeply grateful to the military, and any further help they can give, the public and the city would greatly appreciate it.”
Smith said he had expected a “peacekeeping” operation, in which troops maintained a presence in the most violent communities. “If you locked down an area for 48 hours, search the properties in that space, the outcome could have been different.”
Charles George, chair of the community policing forum in Delft — where the police station has SA’s second-highest number of murder cases — said failure to tackle social problems meant the SANDF deployment was doomed to fail. “Services, including the number of police, have remained the same but for years the population has grown exponentially,” he said.
Smith said one of the consequences was a 3% conviction rate for reported crimes. “The certainty of punishment is lacking,” he said.
Manenberg was the centre of another flare-up of violence this week, when rival gangs waged war in full view of a small police contingent.
Community activist Roegshanda Pascoe, who is in hiding after her testimony helped secure a gang boss’s murder conviction, said police cannot address the gang problem because they lack intelligence.
“When the decision [on the army deployment] came from the president, it was just like the quick speech he made with the shutdown last week. Although we told them exactly what needs to happen, they haven’t listened to us,” said Pascoe.
Gangs were gaining territory and becoming bolder in attacking the police and essential services, she said, and George added: “Look at how many police are being killed now. We already have a war here.”