It would be churlish to dismiss the government’s plan to deploy 3,300 soldiers to help police clamp down on rampant crime. But more clarity is required on the strategy behind this extraordinary step by the president.
Last week, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the National Council of Provinces that he had authorised the deployment of soldiers — with effect from this month — to support police during various crime-fighting operations including illegal mining. Operation Prosper, the campaign’s code name, will cost nearly R500m and will remain in force until April.
This should come as a relief to the beleaguered mining industry. Like the rest of society and other sectors, the industry has borne the brunt of increasing lawlessness and disorder. Its security costs have sharply risen in the past few years as criminal syndicates terrorise both operational and disused mines across the country.
Like manufacturing and other private businesses, the mining industry relies on private security, including outsourced services, to protect its operations. Disused mines, on the other hand, are largely unsecured, enabling zama zamas — illegal artisanal miners — to take over the shafts.
South Africans will be justified to be sceptical about this operation especially without further clarity. The deployment of the army within SA’s borders has always been accompanied by controversy and turned into political football.
South Africans have painful memories of the army’s deployment in communities. In 2020, during the enforcement of the Covid-19 lockdowns, South Africans witnessed the brutal assault of a civilian in his private dwelling.
In July 2021, the country watched with horror as mayhem and violence claimed the lives of nearly 500 people in parts of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng while the army and police stood by. The army took days to be deployed and was, like the police, ill-prepared for the violence and looting that was raging on.
Controversially, despite many pleas from the Western Cape provincial authorities for the army to be deployed to support the police in stopping gang violence, the government has been reluctant. That will cause this deployment, ahead of next year’s general election, to be greeted with cynicism as a public relations campaign.
Details of the campaign are to be communicated today by the defence and police ministries. It is vitally important that the government uses today’s briefing to assure South Africans that this is not about political grandstanding.
Without giving all tactical plans to the criminals, the government needs to answer a few critical questions about the army’s deployment. These include: was the deployment requested by the police; have other stakeholders such as the private security industry been consulted to avoid turf wars; how are the interfaces between private security in mining operations and the army and police going to be handled; have the neighbouring governments of Lesotho, Botswana and Mozambique (home to most of the zama zamas) been consulted; and, was Operation Prosper discussed with leaders of Business for SA’s crime and corruption workstream.
For months, private sector leaders have been working with government counterparts to tackle the crime and corruption crisis. Given the state’s capacity constraints, including a lack of credible intelligence gathering, the partnership with the private sector becomes important.
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