Calls grow to bring army to Nelson Mandela Bay

While Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane has joined the call for President Cyril Ramaphosa to send the army to Nelson Mandela Bay, residents in the northern areas say they want soldiers to root out entrenched gang activity that has gripped their communities for decades.

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.

The premier’s spokesperson, Sonwabo Mbananga, said on Monday that gang activity in the northern areas had a big impact on the daily lives of residents.

“There is sufficient evidence that the police need assistance with regard to gang violence and to safeguard critical infrastructure in Nelson Mandela Bay.”

Mbananga said a reduction in crime would help attract more investors to the province.

“The crime in our province sends a message to outside investors, and we want them to know that we are serious about the rule of law.”

Acting police minister Firoz Cachalia said during his January visit to the city that he did not believe the police were able to defeat crime, warning that the Eastern Cape was showing gang-related patterns similar to those in the Western Cape.

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.

DA MPL Yusuf Cassim expressed disappointment that Ramaphosa had not included the northern areas in his considerations.

“This was a huge slap in the face of the northern areas of Nelson Mandela Bay,” Cassim said.

“We have been battling with gang violence for years and years.”

Cassim reminded the crowd of three-year-old Emilio Hutchinson, who was killed in his home during a gang-related shooting in April 2024.

“A week after his death, we were here at this spot and we handed over a memorandum to the minister of police, and there was no response,” he said.

“We then took it up with the parliamentary channels, and I presented to the portfolio committee on police on this abnormal situation, and we called for priority intervention into the northern areas.

“This resulted in an adopted report in parliament, and there were decisions that were taken that included increasing the capacity of the gang unit and crime intelligence, and none of that has been implemented.

“The minister of police was here last month, when he also conceded that this was an abnormal situation where the gang violence here mirrored that in the Western Cape.”

The police murder statistics for July to September 2025 placed the Eastern Cape above both Johannesburg and Cape Town.

While the national murder rate for the period was 9.2 per 100,000 people, Gauteng recorded 8.4 per 100,000, and Cape Town had the second-highest rate in the country at 15.3 per 100,000.

The Bay topped the list with a rate of 15.6 per 100,000.

Cassim called the Bay the murder capital of SA.

“This is something we should be ashamed of, that we have allowed an environment where criminals can act with impunity.

“People are killed daily, and therefore we have been fighting for priority intervention.

“There is no reason why we would not be included as if our lives do not matter,” he said.

“We are here to make the point that our lives do matter and that we hold value.

“We don’t think the deployment of the army will solve the issue but it will help to stabilise it.”

The DA submitted a memorandum to the police’s district commissioner, Major-General Vuyisile Ncata, setting a 14-day deadline for a response from the president.

Ncata said though police could not comment on the deployment of the army in the Bay, the president was the only person who could make that decision.

“We have increased policing here in Gelvandale and the northern areas,” Ncata said.

“Our efforts have yielded good results.

“The station we are standing in front of is one of the best-performing stations in the district.

“What we have been doing does have some impact that has resulted in the reduction of crime in Nelson Mandela Bay.

“We know that crime is a societal matter and therefore all of us — all stakeholders, all government, all society, the parents in particular, should also join and assist policing.

“These gangs that people are talking about, they live in people’s homes here.

“When we raid, our police vehicles are pelted with stones.”

Ncata pleaded with the community to join forces with the police to combat crime in the northern areas to reduce gangsterism.

“We need to be visible.

“We need to increase and intensify the stop and search.

“We need to investigate those who are known to be involved in gangsterism here.”

Residents in Gelvandale welcomed the idea of deploying the army into the northern areas.

They declined to be named.

A 34-year-old mother of two said gang violence continued throughout the day in Gelvandale.

“On Sunday, during church, the gangsters were shooting for three hours right here where we are standing now,” she said.

“It’s not safe for anyone at any time of the day.

“All the street lights have been stolen, so it’s dark everywhere around here at night, which makes it even less safe.”

An 82-year-old man reminisced about the 1980s, when the army was deployed to the northern areas to combat gangsterism.

“The gangs didn’t stop when they came,” he said.

“They just went underground.

“But the army made it safer on the streets, and there were few shootings where children and innocent people were killed.

“We need the army to come back and save our children from being shot.”

A gang leader said he had already lost 12 friends since the start of 2026.

“The army must come,” he said.

“We all know each other out here.

“We went to school together but we are all shooting at each other every day.

“If the army comes, we will continue to do business but fewer people will die.”

The Herald