Parliament, Wednesday, 1 April 2026 – The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, Mr Ian Cameron, and other members of the portfolio committee, have embarked on an unannounced oversight visit to the Mitchells Plain South African Police Service Police (SAPS) station. The visit was to monitor the practical implementation of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deployment and the cooperation between the SANDF and the police.
Mr Cameron said: “We wanted straight answers to practical questions. If more arrests are going to follow this deployment, does SAPS actually have the capacity to deal with the extra pressure? That includes processing more forensic exhibits, handling the investigative workload and making sure there is proper coordination with the NPA so that arrests do not simply become statistics, but lead to prosecutions and convictions.”
This operation cannot just be about visibility, he said. If the systems behind it are weak, then it risks becoming another short-term intervention that looks busy on the surface but leaves very little behind.
“We also picked up an alleged fuel shortage affecting the SANDF in the Western Cape. If that is indeed the case, it needs urgent attention. You cannot run a serious stabilisation operation while basic logistics are in doubt,” Mr Cameron said.
There are also serious questions around the number of troops being deployed. “We initially heard that more than 800 SANDF members would be sent to the province. That then dropped to 547, and today we heard the number may in fact be just over 200. That is a major difference, and it raises important questions about where the rest are, whether there are delays, what the actual operational plan is, and how the budget is being used.”
Mr Cameron said importantly, SAPS must use this moment to plan beyond the SANDF’s presence. There has to be a proper contingency plan for what happens when soldiers are eventually withdrawn from the Cape Flats. He said if there is no plan for that now, then we are simply postponing the problem instead of solving it.
“It was encouraging to see the professional conduct of both SAPS and SANDF members on the ground today. I was also impressed by the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police, law enforcement, traffic services and LEAP [Law Enforcement Advancement Plan] officers. Their presence and professionalism stood out,” added Mr Cameron.
According to Mr Cameron, the broader point is, if SAPS is under such pressure that the SANDF is needed to help stabilise parts of the Cape Flats, then the conversation around policing powers at local level can no longer be ignored. “The time has come to seriously consider giving the City of Cape Town Metro greater investigative powers and forensic capability. Local government is already carrying a significant burden. It needs the powers to match that reality.
“Communities deserve more than announcements and short bursts of action. They deserve an operation that is properly resourced, properly coordinated and measured by whether it leaves people safer in a real and lasting way,” concluded Mr Cameron.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON POLICE, MR IAN CAMERON.
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