Illegal mining and gang violence have surged to crisis levels, prompting President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to back police in the country’s most dangerous hotspots. Experts warn, however, that soldiers alone cannot dismantle the entrenched criminal networks.
“The SANDF may assist in securing hotspots, supporting visibility, and reinforcing overwhelmed police units. However, dismantling illegal mining syndicates requires a far more targeted, intelligence-led approach,” said a leading crime activist.
This follows Ramaphosa’s State of the Nation Address (SONA), delivered at the Cape Town City Hall, where he placed organised crime, particularly gang violence and illegal mining syndicates, at the centre of government’s 2026 security priorities. He said criminal networks were undermining community safety, economic stability, and the rule of law, and promised a more coordinated security response.
Announcing the deployment, Ramaphosa told Parliament: “I have directed the Minister of Police and the SANDF to develop a technical plan on where our security forces should be deployed within the next few days in the Western Cape and in Gauteng to deal with gang violence and illegal mining.”
Anti-crime activist and Crime Watch host Yusuf Abramjee said the deployment shows how entrenched organised crime has become. He described illegal mining in Gauteng and gang warfare on the Cape Flats as having evolved far beyond informal activity, becoming part of structurally coordinated, well-armed, and financially sophisticated transnational networks.
He warned that military deployment is only a short-term measure.
“From a crime intelligence perspective, military deployment can at best serve as a short-term stabilisation measure. The SANDF may assist in securing hotspots, increasing visibility and reinforcing overwhelmed police units. However, dismantling illegal mining syndicates requires a far more targeted, intelligence-led approach focused on financial flows, supply chains, corrupt enablers and cross-border syndicate leadership,” he said.
Abramjee added that illegal mining is an entire ecosystem, not just a site-based crime.
“It is not merely a site-based crime; it is an ecosystem involving buyers, exporters, money laundering channels and, in some cases, compromised officials. Without disrupting the upper tiers of these networks, enforcement efforts at ground level risk becoming cyclical, removing individuals while leaving the criminal architecture intact,” he added.
Abramjee said the SANDF deployment also highlights deep structural weaknesses in the criminal justice system, from investigative gaps to inadequate forensic support and weak prosecution. Lasting results, he argued, require strengthening investigative units, enhancing financial intelligence, tightening border security, and ensuring high-level syndicate leaders, not just low-level operatives, are brought to justice.
Policing expert Jeremy Vearey told the national broadcaster that previous SANDF deployments to gang-ridden areas had been attempted before but produced only limited results.
“People are talking about feeling safe, this is not necessarily having to translate qualitatively into actually being safe. It's just feeling good, the fact that there are more dangerous-looking people running around in the streets or driving or adopting a more militaristic posture,” he said.
He added that the state could achieve the same deterrent effect by strengthening specialised police units, such as intervention teams, TRTs, and task forces, rather than relying on the military.
“My question is, if the considerations are purely tactical in terms of posture, military posture, there are many other units you can capacitate to do that. But more importantly, you need to, we heard that gangs after that came back much worse and much stronger as the violence testifies now to it.
“So during that period, nothing was done to capacitate detectives to put people in jail or take them through the courts rapidly. And one of the problems identified by that oversight committee at the time was, what was needed during the time that they had that operation, because of the amount of arrests, is to have dedicated courts just to process the arrests that come out of that particular operation. So that is a capacity problem you must address,” he added.
Vearey also highlighted critical resource gaps that hampered operations, including metal detectors, canine units, drones, urban surveillance teams, and long-range monitoring. Many of these could be addressed within police units, but their absence reduced operational effectiveness.
Previously, The Star reported on communities driven from their homes by armed illegal miners in the West Rand. In the Sporong informal settlement near Randfontein, hundreds of families fled to community halls after miners used homes as bases, stole belongings, and fired shots at residents.
In Riverlea, Johannesburg, police operations against illegal miners led to a two-hour gun battle, with officers recovering rifles, pistols, and ammunition from suspects who opened fire.
The Star