South Africa's Ramaphosa says troops will be deployed to fight criminal gangs | crime news

President Cyril Ramaphosa says the military will work with the country's police to counter “gang wars” that threaten “our democracy”.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he will deploy the military to work alongside police to address high levels of gang violence and other crimes in the country.

Ramaphosa said on Thursday he had ordered police and army chiefs to draw up a plan on where “our security forces should be deployed in the coming days in the Western Cape and in Gauteng to tackle gang violence and illegal mining”.

“Organized crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development,” the president said in his annual State of the Union address.

“Children here in the Western Cape are caught in the crossfire of gang wars. Illegal miners in Gauteng are driving people out of their homes,” he told Parliament in his speech.

“I will deploy the South African National Defense Force to support the police,” he said.

South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world, with approximately 60 deaths each day in wars between drug gangs in parts of Cape Town and mass shootings linked to illegal mining in Johannesburg's Gauteng province.

The South African leader said other measures to combat crime include recruiting 5,500 police officers and increasing intelligence while identifying priority criminal syndicates.

“The cost of crime is measured in lives lost and futures cut short. It is also felt in the sense of fear that permeates our society and in the reluctance of businesses to invest,” Ramaphosa said.

crime syndicates

Guns are the most widely used weapon in South Africa, according to authorities, and illegal firearms are used in many crimes, despite strict rules governing gun ownership in the country.

South African authorities have also long struggled to prevent gangs of miners from entering some of the 6,000 closed or abandoned mines in the gold-rich nation in search of remaining reserves.

The government says the miners, known as “zama zamas,” or “swindlers” in Zulu, are often armed, undocumented foreign nationals involved in criminal syndicates.

In 2024 alone, South Africa lost more than $3 billion in gold due to the illegal mining trade, according to authorities.

Ramaphosa also said authorities would bring criminal charges against municipal officials who fail to deliver water to communities where shortages are among the main issues angering most voters.

“Water outages are a symptom of a broken local government system,” the president said of the worsening water crisis as a result of dry weather and continued failures to maintain water mains.

“We will hold accountable those who neglect their responsibility to provide water to our people,” he said.

Residents of the country's largest city, Johannesburg, held scattered protests this week after taps remained dry in some neighborhoods for more than 20 days.

Ramaphosa also called out “powerful nations” that exert their “dominance and influence over less powerful states” and said South Africans cannot consider themselves “free” while “the people of Palestine, Cuba, Sudan, Western Sahara and elsewhere suffer occupation, oppression and war.”

Ramaphosa, who became head of state in 2018, has led South Africa's first coalition government since June 2024, when the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since ending apartheid 30 years earlier.

The coalition, which includes the pro-business Democratic Alliance, has helped restore confidence in Africa's largest economy.

But widespread and persistent unemployment has not improved and the government is under pressure to show it can improve service delivery.