Sending soldiers into the Cape Flats is like putting a plaster on a gunshot wound. Every time the crisis becomes too visible to ignore, the state reaches for the same blunt instrument conclusion: militarisation. This is not real peace. It is a temporary pause.

Once again, soldiers are being sent into the Cape Flats. Once again, armoured vehicles roll through working-class neighbourhoods. Once again, politicians promise that this time, things will be different.

We have seen this movie before, and we know how it ends: With ample room for sequels...

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In July 2019, under "Operation Lockdown", the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was deployed to curb gang violence. For a brief moment, shootings declined. Streets fell quiet. Government congratulated itself.

Then the soldiers left.

And the violence returned. Because it always does.

Gang violence does not disappear when the army arrives. It goes underground. It watches, waits, re-calculates, re-strategises - and then the soldiers leave.

This is not real peace. It is a temporary pause.

Same rights for Cape Flats

People living on the Cape Flats have the same rights as people living in Camps Bay or Claremont to go about their daily lives without fear for their safety. Children have the same rights to learn and to grow.

Forcing Cape Flats residents to live either in a gang zone or under intermittent military occupation does not afford them their rights. It underscores the societal prejudice against them that led to their being...