The tanks and troops have been deployed, and they have a real battle on their hands.

Yesterday, the first South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops arrived on the Cape Flats, patrolling an area that has been completely overrun by gangsters and criminals.

The effectiveness of deploying the army has been widely discussed, and it’s important to remember that there is a historical precedent.

The army was deployed to Manenberg back in 1998, during a deadly conflict in the Cape Flats between gangsters and Pagad, and there are lessons to be learnt from those failings.

Having kept their plans largely under wraps, in order to retain an element of surprise (and to sort out some legal requirements), SANDF vehicles rolled through Manenberg yesterday morning.

Over to News24:

Pictures show individual armed soldiers walking through some of the neighbourhood’s streets, while other pictures showed more convoys roving the streets of Hanover Park.

News24 understands that “everything is done” with regards to the SANDF’s deployment papers – the legal process which had held back the deployment since last week.

Let’s see two videos of the troops in action:

Despite reservations amongst some community leaders, and worries that the army could prove to be ineffective, residents welcomed the troops’ presence.

This from GroundUp:

When the troops arrived residents cheered. Residents came out of their homes to watch as police performed raids. SAPS officers searched vehicles while soldiers kept watch…

Police and the army then made their way to Hanover Park. Here they performed more raids. Residents said that there was shooting in the area a few hours before the troops arrived. Residents expressed support for the army being deployed onto the Cape Flats. People we spoke to, for example, said that the violence made them feel like they are being kept “hostage”.

As you can see, residents were clearly delighted to have feet on the ground:

These weapons were found during the raids:

All of these images below were taken by Ashraf Hendricks:

Now we can only hope that residents in the area are granted some kind of reprieve from living in fear for their lives.

[sources:news24&groundup]