{"id":95861,"date":"2026-02-13T16:42:01","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T16:42:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:31:02","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:31:02","slug":"ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence","title":{"rendered":"Ramaphosa Deploys Soldiers to Combat Gang Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>President Cyril Ramaphosa said organised crime is the most immediate threat to the country\u2019s democracy, society and economic development.<\/p>\n<p>The army is now set to be deployed to gang-ridden areas of the Western Cape and Gauteng.<\/p>\n<p>Ramaphosa made the announcement during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday night.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s set the acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia to work to decide where the troops should be stationed.<\/p>\n<p>In the same way in which the army was used to quell illegal mining, Ramaphosa wants the defence force to assist with gangsterism.<\/p>\n<p>He\u2019s yet to inform Parliament of the number of troops to be deployed and what it will cost.<\/p>\n<p>But he said crime is being felt in the loss of life, the sense of fear and the reluctance of businesses to invest.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have directed the Minister of Police and the SANDF [South African National Defence Force) to develop a tactical plan on where our security forces should be deployed within the next few days in the Western Cape and Gauteng, to deal with gang violence and illegal mining.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Western Cape Premier Alan Winde has welcomed the deployment, but said it\u2019s only a short-term solution and the saps must still be reformed.<\/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. President Cyril Ramaphosa said organised crime is the most immediate threat to the country\u2019s democracy, society and economic development. The army is now set to be deployed to gang-ridden areas of the Western Cape and Gauteng. Ramaphosa made the announcement during the State of the Nation Address (SONA) on Thursday night. He\u2019s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":95860,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-95861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","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>Ramaphosa Deploys Soldiers to Combat Gang Violence - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"President Cyril Ramaphosa said organised crime is the most immediate threat to the country\u2019s democracy, society and econ ...\" \/>\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\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ramaphosa Deploys Soldiers to Combat Gang Violence\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Cyril Ramaphosa said organised crime is the most immediate threat to the country\u2019s democracy, society and econ ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence\" \/>\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=\"2026-02-13T16:42:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-13T17:31:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991132.873286.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\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ramaphosa Deploys Soldiers to Combat Gang Violence\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-02-13T16:42:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-13T17:31:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence\"},\"wordCount\":226,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2026\/02\/sm_1770991132.873286.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/ramaphosa-deploys-soldiers-to-combat-gang-violence\",\"name\":\"Ramaphosa Deploys Soldiers to Combat Gang Violence - 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