{"id":1733,"date":"2026-03-12T04:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/?p=1733"},"modified":"2026-03-12T04:49:11","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:49:11","slug":"army-in-show-of-force-against-gangs-on-streets-of-johannesburg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/12\/army-in-show-of-force-against-gangs-on-streets-of-johannesburg\/","title":{"rendered":"Army in show of force against gangs on streets of Johannesburg"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Soldiers were seen on the streets in Johannesburg on Wednesday in the first major deployment after President Cyril Ramaphosa said last month that he would use the army against what he described as organised crime and the \u201cmost immediate threat\u201d to South Africa\u2019s democracy and economic development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Crime experts have expressed concern over Ramaphosa&#8217;s latest deployment plans, saying that the army isn&#8217;t a long-term solution to fighting crime, and soldiers aren&#8217;t experts in domestic law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed alignleft is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">[WATCH] Soldiers have arrived in Riverlea, Johannesburg, following President Cyril Ramaphosa\u2019s pledge to deploy the military to curb gang violence and illegal mining. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/sabcnews?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#sabcnews<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/UpdateAtNoon?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#UpdateAtNoon<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/qgKZPo0v28\">pic.twitter.com\/qgKZPo0v28<\/a><\/p>&mdash; SABC News Radio (@SABCNews_Radio) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SABCNews_Radio\/status\/2031686384235225175?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">March 11, 2026<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia has backed Ramaphosa and said that the army would act in support of police and &#8220;their operations in particular locations\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said that the deployment is time-limited and meant to stabilise areas \u201cwhere people are losing their lives\u201d every day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Residents reported that armed and uniformed soldiers backed by police conducted house-to-house searches on Wednesday, lifting mattresses and opening cupboards as they asked about drugs and weapons<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-real-news-real-impact wp-block-embed-real-news-real-impact\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"CvJfxyNy0O\"><a href=\"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/residents-of-ganglands-believe-army-deployment-will-not-provide-solutions\/\">Residents of ganglands believe army deployment will not provide solutions<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Residents of ganglands believe army deployment will not provide solutions&#8221; &#8212; REAL NEWS,REAL IMPACT\" src=\"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/index.php\/2026\/02\/23\/residents-of-ganglands-believe-army-deployment-will-not-provide-solutions\/embed\/#?secret=NJTCYIInil#?secret=CvJfxyNy0O\" data-secret=\"CvJfxyNy0O\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Ramaphosa announced in his State of the Nation address that due to South Africa\u2019s high crime rate, which includes on average 60 murders a day, he was deploying the army to some of the country&#8217;s hotspots. Ramaphosa said many of the murders were linked to turf battles between gangs involved in drugs..<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cOrganised crime is now the most immediate threat to our democracy, our society and our economic development,\u201d Ramaphosa said in a state of the nation address last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The military deployment will last a year and cover five of the nine provinces, including the Western Cape, home to tourist hub Cape Town.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-real-news-real-impact wp-block-embed-real-news-real-impact\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"2mISNcuqd8\"><a href=\"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/every-month-100-people-killed-in-gang-violence-across-the-cape-flats-one-man-has-an-idea-to-keep-kids-safe\/\">Every month 100 people killed in gang violence across the Cape Flats. One man has an idea to keep kids safe<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"&#8220;Every month 100 people killed in gang violence across the Cape Flats. One man has an idea to keep kids safe&#8221; &#8212; REAL NEWS,REAL IMPACT\" src=\"https:\/\/1newsnetwork.com\/index.php\/2026\/01\/16\/every-month-100-people-killed-in-gang-violence-across-the-cape-flats-one-man-has-an-idea-to-keep-kids-safe\/embed\/#?secret=rsMV34xish#?secret=2mISNcuqd8\" data-secret=\"2mISNcuqd8\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Soldiers were seen on the streets in Johannesburg on Wednesday in the first major deployment after President Cyril Ramaphosa said last month that he would use the army against what he described as organised crime and the \u201cmost immediate threat\u201d to South Africa\u2019s democracy and economic development. Crime experts have expressed concern over Ramaphosa&#8217;s latest [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[140,204],"tags":[34,79,260,66,67,197],"class_list":{"0":"post-1733","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-must-reads","8":"category-top-story","9":"tag-drugs","10":"tag-gangs","11":"tag-manenberg","12":"tag-ramaphosa","13":"tag-sandf","14":"tag-westbury"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1733"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1735,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1733\/revisions\/1735"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1nationmedia.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}