PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - AUGUST 01: President Cyril Ramaphosa during the swearing-in ceremony of the Minister-Designate of Police at Union Buildings on August 01, 2025 in Pretoria, South Africa. President Ramaphosa appointed Professor Cachalia as Acting Minister of Police after Minister Senzo Mchunu was placed on indefinite leave following corruption allegations made against him by the KwaZulu Natal Provincial Police Commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. (Photo by Gallo Images/Frennie Shivambu)
President Cyril Ramaphosa is considering deploying the army to gang violence hotspots in South Africa, but warns that soldiers are not trained like police officers.
He was speaking to journalists outside the African National Congress (ANC) National Executive Committee (NEC) Lekgotla on Saturday.
This follows after multiple incidents where alleged gang members have killed innocent residents.
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Soldiers shoot to kill
Ramaphosa warns that soldiers are trained to shoot to kill, so the consideration to deploy them must be given careful thought.
“A call has been made to deploy the army, and the army as it engages in any situation are not police people, they do not investigate,” he said. “When they see someone doing wrong, they see them as an enemy and they shoot to kill.”
“So we have to balance all the deployment of these forces, and fortunately we have a multi-disciplinary mixed of forces so the army can come in to support the police.”
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How soldiers and police officers can work together
He added that there is a way the army and police officers can work together to curb the violence in these areas.
“The police must be armed with good intelligence, crime intelligence should be onsite to know exactly who the wrong doers are, and the other forces can come in to give in support,” said Ramaphosa.
“So the gang violence is one of the challenges that we are facing that is very prominent in our minds.”
26 people killed
Just last weekend, 26 people died on the Cape Flats in Western Cape. In the early hours on Saturday, 17 January, at least eight people were killed in a mass shooting at a tavern at the Marikana informal settlement in Philippi on the Cape Flats.
The incident that also left 10 people injured is believed to be linked to extortion in the area.
According to the chairperson of parliament’s portfolio committee on police, Ian Cameroon, between 29 December 2025 and 11 January 2026, the Cape Flats recorded 58 gang-related murders and 60 attempted murders.
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