SANDF deployment gets community backing despite ongoing violence

WHILE communities have welcomed the large-scale security deployment of the SANDF on the Cape Flats, they also have mixed feelings about whether this will have any impact.

- THEOLIN TEMBO

During a joint parade in Belhar last week, Deputy National Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Tebello Mosikili said Operation Prosper, bringing together the SAPS, SANDE and the City of Cape Town, in a show of coordinated force, was fully prepared.

Cape Flats Safety Forum chairperson, Abie Isaacs, said they have welcomed the deployment of SANDF as a force multiplier to the SAPS in hot spot areas.

“We have observed in affected areas that the community have been accepting them. We call on communities to assist these apenes in rooting out crime. We would only be able to see the impact after 21 days”

Mitchells Plain Residents United Association (MURA) chairperson, Michael Jacobs, echoed Isaacs’ sentiment and welcomed the forces, but still had concerns.