Ramaphosa Hails SANDF Deployment As Murders Drop in 14 Crime Hotspots

• President Cyril Ramaphosa responded to a parliamentary question from the MK Party about Operation Prosper's effectiveness
• More than 2,000 SANDF soldiers were deployed alongside SAPS in high-crime areas across the country
• Ramaphosa acknowledged that gang-related violence remained a serious challenge despite the reported progress

SOUTH AFRICA — President Cyril Ramaphosa has told Parliament that the deployment of South African National Defence Force (SANDF) soldiers to high-crime areas has contributed to a measurable decline in murders and violent crime across most of the targeted precincts.

Ramaphosa was responding to a written parliamentary question from the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party, which sought clarity on whether Operation Prosper had achieved its intended results.

The operation saw more than 2,000 SANDF members deployed alongside the South African Police Service (SAPS) in areas experiencing persistent gang activity and serious violent offences.

Crime figures show improvement in most precincts

According to Ramaphosa, the joint security intervention produced positive outcomes in 14 of the 17 most affected police precincts, where both murders and violent crime recorded a decline. The majority of those precincts fall within the Western Cape, including several areas inside the Cape Town metropolitan area.

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The president said the assessment of the deployment's impact was based on concrete operational indicators, including measurable reductions in violent crime and murders, as well as the total number of arrests recorded during the operation. He described the results as evidence that the intervention had a stabilising effect on the affected communities.

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Gang violence remains a persistent challenge

Despite the encouraging figures, Ramaphosa was candid about the limits of the intervention. He acknowledged that gang-related violence continued to pose a serious challenge in several of the targeted communities, attributing the persistence of the problem to "deep-seated socio-economic conditions and entrenched criminal networks."

The president welcomed the decline in murders but stopped short of declaring the crisis resolved, framing the deployment as one component of a broader government strategy to address violent crime in South Africa's most troubled neighbourhoods.

The SANDF's involvement in domestic policing operations has been a point of ongoing debate, with critics questioning the long-term sustainability of military deployments as a solution to crime driven largely by socio-economic factors.

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Police Minister defended Operation Propser

Briefly News previously reported that Acting Police Mnister Firoz Cachalia defended Operation Prosper before parliament after an MK Party MP questioned its effectiveness. At least 30 people were killed in the Western Cape over a single weekend despite the R823 million joint SAPS and SANDF deployment. Cachalia cited 672 arrests and murder reductions at 11 police stations, but acknowledged some areas had only recently received deployments.

Source: Briefly News