Police Minister Bheki Cele says the Western Cape does not need the South African National Defence Force in the province to deal with efforts to fight crime.
Cele and the police’s top brass are briefing the media on the successes of Operation Thunder, which was launched in May this year, focusing on crime hotspots in the province such as Mitchells Plain, Lavender Hill, Phillipi East, Bishop Lavis and Ravensmead.
Thousands of arrests have been affected in the almost two month period for various crimes.
Cele says there has been an upsurge in shootings in Mitchell’s Plain. There has been numerous calls for the army to be deployed in the province. However, Cele says the army doesn’t have the same capabilities as the police.
“Police, if they come here and they are looking for a suspect, that suspect might be allowed to escape rather than shooting all of you. We need to discuss with those who are calling for the deployment of soldiers here so that we find a better way of doing it. We fully believe that we have not reached a time where we are going to deploy the SANDF members in the Western Cape.”
