Crime Is A Law Enforcement
Challenge, Not A Military One
Lunga Dweba
Pretoria, South Africa
10 April 2026
“President Cyril Ramaphosa has in line with section 201 (3) (a)(b)(c) and (d)
of the Constitution informed the National Assembly and the National Council
of Provinces of his decision to deploy two thousand two hundred (2 200)
members of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) for service in
cooperation with the South African Police Service (SAPS).”
— The Presidency of the Republic of South Africa
The Deployment
South Africa continues to face high levels of crime and violence that negatively
impact business continuity and private life generally. The South African
government is undoubtedly hard at work to manage the situation, not without
difficulties and interventions that produce temporary disruption rather than
long-term results. The ongoing military deployment in law enforcement tasks is a
case in point, as I demonstrate below.
Why Military Deployments Fall Short
International experience has repeatedly shown that military deployments into
civilian crime environments offer, at best, temporary disruption rather than
sustainable resolution. While soldiers may suppress visible violence in the
immediate term, they are not structured, trained, or mandated to perform the
long-term investigative, intelligence-led, and community-based functions
required to combat deep-rooted criminality.
Operation Prosper: Early Evidence
In many jurisdictions where governments have resorted to military support for
domestic crime, violence often re-emerges once deployments end because the
underlying policing and intelligence deficiencies remain unresolved. Under the
ongoing Operation Prosper deployment, incidents have continued unabated —
with shootings recorded in Cape Town areas within days of soldiers arriving on 1
April 2026.
Soldiers do not bring a silver bullet but when incidents continue unabated despite
their presence, it undermines public confidence in the military's role. Not because
they cannot face hostile environments, but because their mandate in this
deployment does not permit them to operate as they would in a conventional
military combat.
The Way Forward
The lesson is that crime is fundamentally a law enforcement challenge, not a
military one. If the state is serious about addressing violent crime, then
reinforcement must prioritise the South African Police Service through better
training, improved intelligence capability, stronger investigative units, and
adequate operational resourcing. The solution cannot be the gradual
militarisation of policing functions. Sustainable crime reduction lies in building
policing capacity, not substituting it.
Lunga Dweba is the Director of Geopolitical Intelligence (Pty) Ltd — a business intelligence and
geopolitical risk advisory practice.
www.giadvisory.co.za info@giadvisory.co.za