Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, ANC MP Dakota Legoete, has called for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to be used to fight crime, but experts have rebutted this as a bad idea.
Legoete made the comments during a Peace and Security Cluster media briefing in Parliament on Thursday 10 April. He noted the loss of over 29 000 South African lives annually due to violent crime constitutes a de facto war, and called for a national proclamation declaring crime as a war against humanity, enabling a coordinated operation involving the SANDF, South African Police Service (SAPS), Border Management Authority (BMA), Home Affairs, and South African Revenue Service (SARS).
Responding to the Chairperson’s comments, defence expert Dean Wingrin said deploying soldiers for policing is “a terrible idea” as the already stretched and under-resourced SANDF “is not there to prop up a failing State department (SAPS), soldiers are not trained for internal policing, and the Constitution has clearly defined boundaries between the Defence Force and policing.”
African Defence Review Director Darren Olivier agreed that it is “a terrible idea that will not reduce crime over the long run but will further diminish and harm both the SANDF and SAPS.”
He stated that the military is neither a crime-fighting organisation nor a backstop to the failures of other departments, and the government should stop trying to use it like one.
“Study after study shows that using the military in a policing role causes more harm. It typically makes them more corrupt, less disciplined, less combat-ready, and more likely to engage in human rights abuses. Some even find it makes crime worse,” according to Olivier.
“With regard to the SANDF itself, Montesh and Basdeo carried out a study on the use of the SANDF in policing roles, finding that if such deployments were done they needed to be temporary, exceptional in need, and subject to strict oversight. To be clear, I agree that there are situations where the SANDF can and should, act in support of the SAPS, such as public order unrest. But, like Montesh and Basdeo, I believe those deployments should be the exception, not the norm, else you turn the army into a subpar police force,” Olivier continued.
He believes the answer to a failing SAPS is to reform, fix, and improve it, not bring in the SANDF as a temporary patch, as every time that has happened over the past few decades it has made the SAPS and the SANDF slightly worse and less capable, and reduced public trust.
Another option may be to form a gendarmerie, but it should not be run, staffed, or trained as an SANDF unit, Olivier believes.
ProtectionWeb Editor Ricardo Teixeira agreed that a gendarmerie type force, staffed by SAPS recruits, that undergo a special training programme administered by SANDF, could be a useful addition. Such a disciplined force would be capable of dealing with violent criminal groups, protecting critical infrastructure and housing specialist tactical skills.
Commenting on Legoete’s comments on Thursday, Teixeira noted a couple of things becoming apparently of late. “First, SAPS is overwhelmed by the ‘fight against crime’, and is doubling down, while increasingly officers are in situations where they are engaged and must respond with force. This has led to calls for concern, saying ‘police aren’t supposed to kill’. Secondly, there have been calls for ‘sending the army in’.
“This has been a contentious call for years, but misses a crucial point. It is not the military’s job to enforce the law, and South Africa already has a painful history where the defence force was used domestically by the former government. The decision post ’94 was for this never to be the case again, unless in national emergencies, as we saw during COVID and the July 2021 riots.
“SANDF is not going to be the answer to ‘the fight against crime.’ It is not a war, but a complex situation that requires a different approach,” Teixeira concluded.
