South Africa military deployed to quell Cape Town gang crime
FRIDAY JULY 19 2019
Cape Town. South African soldiers on Thursday started patrolling Cape Town's crime-ridden townships under a deployment ordered by the government to counter a surge of shootings, gang violence and murders.
The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) are to be on the streets for at least three months to boost the city's struggling police force under the order authorised by President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The number of soldiers deployed was not revealed.
Ramaphosa told lawmakers the soldiers would support police "to restore law and maintain order in communities that are being terrorised by gangsterism and tackle "the most extreme incidents of violent crime".
Troops in full combat gear brandishing assault rifles were seen standing beside military personnel carriers at road junctions in the Manenberg township in Eastern Cape Town.
The army has been used in similar missions in Cape Town before. It was called out this time to respond to a spike in violence in recent months in the sprawling townships of the Cape Flats area, one of the most dangerous places in South Africa.
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