The troop rollout is a stabilization strategy to support the fight against organised crime, Firoz Cachaliahas has said

The deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) will not be a "magic bullet," South African Acting Minister of Police, Firoz Cachalia, said on Wednesday. He added that training is underway and, once complete, the rollout will run until 31 March 2027.

Cachalia, alongside the National Police Commissioner, General Fannie Masemola, addressed a joint meeting between the Portfolio Committee on Police and the Portfolio Committee on Mineral and Petroleum Resources, on the deployment of the SANDF in support of SAPS operations.

The committees heard that the deployment of the SANDF is authorised under Section 201(2)(a) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, and Section 19(3)(c)(ii) of the Defence Act, Act 42 of 2002.

Masemola said that the SANDF will not be deployed across the whole country, but to certain hotspots. The hotspots have been identified as Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, North West, and Free State. 

The committee heard that each entity shall retain its distinct command authority throughout the operation, and that  Operational coordination shall take place through Joint Operational and Intelligence Structures (JOINTS) at national, provincial, and local levels.

The operation shall be coordinated with both designated SAPS and SANDF commanders to ensure unity of effort. Based on joint command training for alignment, coordination and synergised operations.

Monitoring and evaluation will occur and be reported through Project Management processes under the auspices of the overarching National Organised Crime Combatting Operation ("Ukubuza").

Masemola explained that deployment will commence on 1 March 2026 and conclude on 31 March 2027, but he said that while training is underway, the rollout of the SANDF will only be determined once they have completed training and have been deemed ready for deployment. 

He indicated that they will likely go full speed from April onwards.

While Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana had explained that the current cost of the SANDF deployment is unknown, he deduced that they would be funded through Section 16 of the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA), which governs the use of funds in emergency situations.

Masemola gave more insight, explaining that while they will still have to brief the committee on how funding will work, the current funds being used by SAPS will come out of the R1 billion assigned to combat organised crime. He said the SANDF has their own budget that will support the deployments.

"The deployment of the SANDF is there to stabilise the areas, while the rest of the (SAPS) teams will be dealing with the organised crime, with a view to dismantling those organised crime syndicates. That is the main objective that stabilisation happens within the gang and illicit mining areas, while organised crime teams deal with all the gangs and all other forms of organised crime," Masemola said.

"It will not be a member from a police station who is drawn to go and work with the SANDF, because that would create more shortages at the police station. Mostly, you have specialised units that work with the SANDF, like the NIU Special Task Force."

When asked about who would be in control on the ground, the committee heard that SAPS will be the authority on the scene, and SANDF is there to support and stabilise SAPS' efforts.

Cachalia said: "The deployment of the SANDF is not being presented as a panacea, (or) as a magic bullet. As the national commissioner said, the deployment of the army is a stabilisation strategy to create space for the implementation of an organised crime strategy that was adopted by the Cabinet about a month ago.

"It's in the process of being implemented," Cachalia said.

Cachalia added that there were some tactile aspects that they could not elaborate on, as during their preparations to brief the committee, he noted that they had to "balance the expectation of the public, and the expectation of information from the committee members versus that of operational security, purely based on law enforcement grounds". 

"We should not be put in a position, in accounting to the committee as the police and the army, to expose information which is of use to the criminals that we are confronting. I concur with those members that we should find a mechanism which balances these two considerations in the way we account to the committee."

He also added that they have taken previous SANDF-SAPS deployment experiences into account to learn from them and mitigate any risks that could arise.

"I do want to say very clearly to the armed criminals out there, they have to assume the consequences of confronting the police and the army because they are causing untold misery", Cachalia said.

First published by IOL