In his first “From the Desk of the President” missive for August, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa expands on crime and violence and the contribution made by soldiers alongside and in support of the SA Police Service (SAPS).
He refers to the SAPS-led Operation Shanela (sweep clean), now in its second year, as “a multi-sectoral crime-fighting strategy” with involvement from the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) as well as other law enforcement agencies. These range from the National Traffic Police Unit (NTPU) of the Road Traffic Management Corporation and the nine provincial traffic authorities through to the country’s eight metro police departments (Buffalo City, Cape Town, Ekurhuleni, eThekwini, Johannesburg, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay and Tshwane). Also in Shanela are the Department of Home Affairs (DHA), National Treasury’s SA Revenue Service (SARS), and the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA).
Ramaphosa notes Shanela “draws heavily on collaboration with community policing forums (CPFs) and community patrollers” as well as working with security companies, adding it shows the fight against crime is gaining momentum.
Shanela teams have made “important progress” dealing with crime hotspots and organised crime syndicates. Typically soldiers from the regular and reserve components of the SA Army and other SANDF elements (mostly SA Air Force helicopters) are tasked to support police on raids, roadblocks, stop and search operations, foot and vehicle patrols and business compliance inspections. The first time soldiers were tasked to support police in the execution of their duties was five years ago in the Cape Flats region of the Western Cape province.
Soldiers have also been deployed to protect national key points as defined in the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act of 2019, notably at Eskom power stations and other facilities where theft and sabotage either happened or was suspected. Restoring civil security was another SANDF tasking during the July 2021 looting and violence in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
Soldiers are still working with police and other government departments including the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, to curb illicit mining. This tasking is part of the SAPS Operation Vala Umgodi (plug the hole) nationally with successes recorded in the Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Northern Cape provinces.
These actions continue what Ramaphosa writes are “specialised task teams to deal with economic sabotage such as cable theft, vandalism of power installations and railway lines, illicit mining and extortion in the construction industry”.
The South African President ends his 5 August discourse noting Shanela has shown the benefits of multi-sectoral collaboration and the value of specialised task teams.
“If we continue the good work started through Operation Shanela we can beat crime and build a safe and secure country,” he wrote in a further edition of the newsletter which made its first appearance on 30 September 2019.
“The update delivered by the SAPS last week noted that solid police work over the past year had resulted in more than 700 000 arrests for various crimes, including murder, cash-in-transit robberies, vehicle hijacking and sexual offences,” Ramaphosa said. ““Over the past two years more than 20 000 firearms have been seized, including several homemade guns and rifles. More than 3000 firearms were seized in the Western Cape, where gun violence amongst warring gangs is particularly rife.”
