{"id":95854,"date":"2026-02-13T16:40:45","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:29:26","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:29:26","slug":"da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops","title":{"rendered":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism in the Western Cape and Gauteng.<\/p>\n<p>However, the party warns this is not a strategy to dismantle drug networks, build racketeering cases, or secure convictions.<\/p>\n<p>DA MP Lisa Schickerling says the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) cannot replace the investigative and intelligence functions of the South African Police Service (SAPS) or the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation.<\/p>\n<p>President Cyril Ramaphosa announced in his State of the Nation Address on Thursday night that he has ordered the deployment of troops to support the police in dealing with gangs. This is the second time troops have been deployed to deal with gangsterism in the Western Cape since 2019.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Short-term deployments may calm hotspots, but only structural reform will make communities truly safe,&#8221; said Schickerling.<\/p>\n<p>Schickerling says the deployment of the army has only become necessary because the SAPS is not up to the task.<\/p>\n<p>The DA is still pushing for policing powers to be devolved to the provinces \u2013 in particular to allow the City of Cape Town to beef up its law enforcement capacity.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Where capable metros like the City of Cape Town have proven capacity, their policing powers must be expanded within the constitution to multiply crime-fighting impact,&#8221; Schickerling added.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism in the Western Cape and Gauteng. However, the party warns this is not a strategy to dismantle drug networks, build racketeering cases, or secure convictions. DA MP Lisa Schickerling says the South African National [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95853,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T16:40:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T17:29:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-13T16:40:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T17:29:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\"},\"wordCount\":239,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\",\"name\":\"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-13T16:40:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T17:29:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops - South Africa","description":"The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops","og_description":"The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2026-02-13T16:40:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-02-13T17:29:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops","datePublished":"2026-02-13T16:40:45+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-13T17:29:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops"},"wordCount":239,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops","name":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg","datePublished":"2026-02-13T16:40:45+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-13T17:29:26+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"The Democratic Alliance (DA) supports the deployment of the Defence Force to help stabilise areas plagued by gangsterism ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991039.539721.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/da-supports-sandf-in-gang-hotspots-but-warns-on-troops#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"DA Supports SANDF in Gang Hotspots but Warns on Troops"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}