Mapisa-Nqakula: Deployment of SANDF in WC a success
Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula also commended the men and women of the defence force for how they’ve conducted themselves under extreme provocation.
CAPE TOWN - Defence and Military Veterans Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula on Tuesday said the deployment of troops to help police deal with gangsterism and a spiralling murder rate in the Western Cape has been a success.
She’s also commended the men and women of the defence force for how they’ve conducted themselves under extreme provocation.
The army was deployed to Cape Town suburbs and townships on 12 July until the middle of next month.
“The deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in the Cape Flats is a success in that where the other state entities had lost access in the areas engulfed in violence, the defence force has made it possible for them to access such areas as part of their service delivery mandate.”
Mapisa-Nqakula said the SANDF would not have gone in if Police Minister Bheki Cele had not asked for this.
“The South African National Defence Force was never designed or aimed to be utilised internally. But it should be understood that whenever state control and state authorities are being undermined to such an extent that it endangers the lives of the citizens of the Republic of South Africa and destruction of property belonging to citizens, it is equally mandated in terms of the law to address such as part of the whole government approach in support of other departments and in this case, in support of the police.”
