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The deployment of the army to Gauteng and the Western Cape has been extended to the Eastern Cape.
This comes as the national commissioner of the SA Police Service and the chief of the SA National Defence Force (SANDF) have finalised a deployment plan.
It is set to begin within 10 days.
This was announced by acting police minister Firoz Cachalia.
He was speaking during a joint sitting of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces on Tuesday.
MPs had met to debate President Cyril Ramaphosa’s state of the nation address.
“I confirm that the national commissioner of the SA Police Service and the chief of our army met on Monday to finalise the deployment plan, which will begin in the next 10 days at the direction of the president,” Cachalia said.
“I can confirm that the deployment will include the Eastern Cape.”
In his state of the nation address last week, Ramaphosa committed to deploying the army to assist the police in Gauteng and the Western Cape.
However, there was no mention of the Eastern Cape, which faces crime challenges similar to those in the other two provinces.
Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane then joined the call for Ramaphosa to send the army to the province with a focus on Nelson Mandela Bay’s northern areas.
On Monday, the DA held a rally outside the Gelvandale police station to call on Ramaphosa to include the Eastern Cape in the army’s deployment.
On Tuesday, DA MPL Yusuf Cassim said though the deployment of the army could provide short-term relief and had the potential to bring much-needed stability to communities that had been living under siege for far too long, it could not resolve the root causes of gangsterism.
He said the safety and dignity of residents must remain the priority, and immediate stabilisation was a necessary first step.
“The DA further extends our sincere gratitude to the many community members who came out in their numbers to make their voices heard during the ‘Do our lives not matter?’ rally and memorandum handover at the Gelvandale police station.
“Their courage and unity sent a clear message that residents’ lives in the northern areas cannot continue to be ignored.”
He said the memorandum made clear that, though army intervention was not a solution to the carnage in the northern areas, it would provide essential stability.
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