South African Army Deployment Enters Second Week as Debate Over Police Capacity Grows

A one-year deployment in five provinces has resulted in controversy among Parliamentarians, with some seeing it as a necessary move but others expressing concerns that it sets a bad precedent and ignores the deeper problems in South African policing.

On March 1st, the South African military began the country's most extensive domestic crime deployment in nearly a decade, with soldiers from the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) being deployed in gang affected townships and illegal mining hotspots.

This one-year deployment is set to end on 31 March 2027 and includes areas such as the Cape Flats in the Western Cape, Gqeberha's northern suburbs in the Eastern Cape, as well as illegal mining hotspots in Gauteng, the North West, and the Free State. The deployment was first announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his State of the Nation Address in February. It was later extended into the Eastern Cape after an outcry by Gqeberha residents. Although the exact figure is still unknown, it is estimated that the deployment will cost roughly 800 million Rand.

Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Police was briefed on Wednesday by police leadership and military officials. Major-General Mark Hankel, the project coordinator and acting inspectorate divisional commissioner, told MPs that soldiers assigned to the operation were still undergoing preparatory training and had not yet entered the affected communities.

Although the briefing focused on operational preparations, MPs used the session to question the state of policing in South Africa, arguing that the need to deploy soldiers domestically was proof of serious shortcomings within the South African Police Service

(SAPS). DA MP Dianne Kohler Barnard told the committee that the world was watching as soldiers were deployed within South Africa's own borders because the SAPS had "virtually lost the war" against crime, calling it "personally shameful" for a democracy to admit its police were outmanned and outsmarted by criminals. EFF MP Leigh-Anne Mathys echoed the sentiment, saying the country should be "ashamed and heartbroken" that the military was needed for a task the SAPS should be capable of handling.

National Police Commissioner Fannie Masemola quickly responded, arguing that the SANDF was merely "complementing" the police's work. He claimed that the military would patrol the streets, arrest suspects, and immediately hand them over to the SAPS. Acting Police Minister Cachalia sounded more conciliatory, admitting that there have been structural shortcomings in crime intelligence and detective services for a while now. He claimed the military deployment was a measure to "create space" for the more overarching plan for fighting organised crime, which the Cabinet had approved a month ago, arguing that the military was "not being presented as a panacea, as a magic bullet."

The debate also highlights deeper structural problems within South Africa’s law-enforcement system that go beyond simple resource shortages. Conviction and investigation rates in corruption and organised crime cases remain extremely low, reflecting weaknesses in detective work, crime intelligence and coordination with prosecutors. Parliamentary figures previously revealed that of nearly 2,000 suspected corruption cases reported to the police over several years, only a small fraction were properly investigated and even fewer resulted in convictions. Analysts and opposition figures argue that investigative capacity has been eroded by political interference, the weakening of specialised units such as the Hawks and the collapse of multidisciplinary cooperation between police, prosecutors and investigators. Combined with chronic backlogs, limited intelligence capabilities and persistent allegations of corruption within SAPS itself, these institutional failures have significantly undermined the police’s ability to dismantle organised crime networks — a reality that critics say has forced the state to rely increasingly on the military as a stopgap measure.

This domestic deployment comes at a moment of strategic realignment for the SANDF. Ramaphosa has announced that South Africa is withdrawing its remaining 450 troops from the UN peacekeeping force in the DRC, MONUSCO, with a phased exit by July 31, 2026, at a cost of nearly R883 million. South Africa had already withdrawn its troops from the SADC mission in the DRC last year after the rebel group M23 took control of Goma in January. DA defense spokesperson Chris Hattingh said that, based on the DRC experience, he had real concerns surrounding SANDF’s combat readiness and that this withdrawal should signal a new beginning for military strength.

The defence budget offers little reassurance on that front. The 2026/27 budget stands at R57.6 billion, down from R59 billion the previous year. While small increases are projected in the two years that follow, the annual growth rate of 1.5% is well below inflation — meaning the military will effectively receive less in real terms each year. Ramaphosa acknowledged at Armed Forces Day in February that defence funding had been tapering down for years and "can no longer continue," but critics note that this year's budget numbers tell a different story. For many members of parliament, however, one question still lingers: if the military is needed to guard South Africa’s streets, what does that say about the state of that country’s police force?