President Cyril Ramaphosa said the military would work with the country’s police to counter “gang wars” that threaten “our democracy”.
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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the military would be deployed to work with police to tackle high levels of gang violence and other crimes in the country.
Prime Minister Ramaphosa announced on Thursday that he had directed the police and military chiefs to develop a plan on “where security forces should be deployed in the Western Cape and Gauteng in the coming days to tackle gang violence and illegal mining.”
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“Organized crime now poses the most pressing threat to our nation’s democratic, social, and economic development,” the president said in his annual State of the State address.
“Here in the Western Cape, children are caught in the crossfire of gang wars. In Gauteng, people are being forced from their homes by illegal miners,” he said in a speech in parliament.
“I will send the South African National Defense Force to assist the police,” he said.
South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, with around 60 people dying every day, from murders in a war between drug gangs in the Cape Town area to illegal mining-related shootings in Johannesburg’s Gauteng province.
South Africa’s leader said other measures to fight crime include recruiting 5,500 police officers and ramping up intelligence operations while identifying priority criminal organizations.
“The cost of crime is measured in lives lost and futures destroyed. This is felt in the sense of fear that permeates society and in the reluctance of businesses to invest,” Ramaphosa said.
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Officials say guns are the most commonly used weapon in South Africa, and illegal firearms are used in many crimes despite the country’s strict rules governing gun ownership.
South African authorities have also long struggled to prevent groups of miners from entering some of the 6,000 closed or abandoned mines in the gold-rich country to search for remaining reserves.
The government contends that miners, known in Zulu as “zama zamas” or “hustlers,” are usually armed illegal aliens involved in criminal organizations.
In 2024 alone, South Africa lost more than $3 billion in gold to illegal mining trade, according to authorities.
Mr Ramaphosa also said authorities would bring criminal charges against municipal officials who failed to provide water to communities where water scarcity was one of the main issues that angered most voters.
“Water outages are a sign that local government systems are not working,” the president said of the water crisis, exacerbated by dry weather and consistent failures to maintain water pipes.
“We will hold accountable those who neglect their responsibility to provide water to the people,” he said.
Residents of Johannesburg, the country’s largest city, staged sporadic protests this week after the water in some areas remained dry for more than 20 days.
President Ramaphosa also accused “powerful states” of exercising “dominance and influence over weaker states” and said South Africans could not consider themselves “free” “as long as peoples such as Palestine, Cuba, Sudan and Western Sahara suffer from occupation, oppression and war.”
Ramaphosa, who became head of state in 2018, has led South Africa’s first coalition government since June 2024, when the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since the end of apartheid three decades ago.
The coalition, which includes the pro-business Democratic Alliance, has helped restore confidence in Africa’s largest economy.
However, widespread and persistent unemployment has not improved, and the government is under pressure to show it can improve service delivery.
