CAPE TOWN: Waving
and giggling, crowds of children scamper behind a Casspir military armored
truck trailed by police vehicles as they snake through the streets on a raid in
the gang-ridden Cape Flats area of South Africa. A few blocks down the road,
the rifle and shield-brandishing forces hop off their vehicles and meander
through lines of hanging laundry, before swooping in on a cluster of apartment
buildings suspected to be crime hotspots. South Africa in July deployed some
1,300 soldiers to shore up the police forces which has been battling deadly
gang violence ravaging the area.

Situated on the
southeastern outskirts of the touristic city of Cape Town, the Cape Flats area
comprises multiple townships where blacks and people of mixed race were
condemned to live by the oppressive apartheid regime.  It has become one of the most dangerous
places in South Africa, plagued by gangsterism and under-resourced policing.
But a month after their deployment, the troops appear to have brought little
relief for the crime-weary and poverty-stricken community.

"Everybody
was elated when they heard the news that the army was going to come in because
the situation was so dire, that anything to improve the situation would have
helped," said Kader Jacobs, who heads a community policing forum in
Manenberg township. People had expected a roll-out of large scale lockdowns
with specific targeting of well-known criminal hotspots and gang leaders but
"there's been none of this". "The people aren't seeing any major
changes or improvements in the area," said the frustrated community
leader.

Working with
intelligence

Police statistics
say murders in the Western Cape province rose 6.3 percent to nearly 4,000 in
the year up to April 2019. A new report on urban safety released by the South
African Cities Network this year, showed Cape Town recorded the highest murder
rates in the country at 69 people killed per 100,000 -- double the national
average of rate recorded last year.

"They send
in the army but the army can't do anything," said 50-year-old Sally-Anne
Jacobs who lost both her son and 19-year-old cousin to gang violence over the
past four years. "The army is here but I don't know how far they can go to
minimize the killings on the Cape Flats," she said. Bowing to pressure
from local government, community and social organizations after 43 murders were
recorded in just one weekend in July, President Cyril Ramaphosa cleared a
temporary three-month military deployment.

Working with
intelligence gathered from community members and other sources, the military
goes in and secures parameters allowing the police to raid and arrest - at
times evoking applause from neighbors. But the numbers of killings have not
reduced much. Despite the army presence over the past month, 47 deaths were
reported on the second weekend of August - making it the deadliest weekend
since the infantry arrived.

Police Minister
Bheki Cele said while "it's not an ideal world to send soldiers into
communities," there has been more than 1,000 arrests so far for various
crimes including attempted murder, robbery and hijackings. In addition, police
have seized 45 firearms and 1,036 rounds of ammunition. Even with such mass arrests,
locals continue to live in fear and suspect may cases won't be thoroughly
investigated. "Half of the detectives in the province have a caseload of
200 dockets or more, when the ideal number is between 50 and 60,"
provincial minister Alan Winde said.

'No major
changes'

Social activist
of the Manenberg Safety Forum charity, Roegchanda Pascoe is also not impressed.
"From what I've seen the army hasn't done much. Minimal to nought impact
has been measured. Two guns in the last operation were found out of the many
artillery we know is out on the streets," she said. There's more to
curbing crime than just military show of force, according to Pascoe. "The
social fabric of our communities has broken down entirely. We sit with broken
families, with unemployment, teenage pregnancy, drug and alcohol abuse."

But the police
minister says it is still "early days" of the operation as he warned
gangsters that "your days are numbered." Costing the taxpayer $1.4
million (1.25 million euros), the operational expense "would be worth it
if it led to a long-term disruption in violence," said Andrew Faull, a
researcher with the Pretoria-based think-tank Institute of Security Studies
(ISS). But so far the military deployment according to Faull is akin to a "political
theatre". "They are being seen to do things but they are just going
through the motions. So it's performative politics."- AFP