Parliament has heard that the SANDF deployment to fight gangsterism and illegal mining will last one year, but MPs lamented that the police had failed so badly that the army needed to be called in to fight crime.

"It's personally shameful" that the police have admitted that they have failed so badly that they need the help of the country's military to help fight crime within South Africa's borders.

Those were the words of Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler Barnard on Wednesday, 4 March 2026, in Parliament, as the police oversight committee was briefed on the deployment of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF).

During his State of the Nation Address in February, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the deployment of the SANDF to help the police fight crime: gang violence in the Western Cape and illegal mining in Gauteng.

After an outcry from residents of Gqeberha's northern areas, Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia announced that the deployment had been extended to the Eastern Cape.

According to a presentation on Wednesday, hotspot areas where the SANDF will be deployed include gang-affected communities on the Cape Flats (Western Cape) and Gqeberha's northern areas (Eastern Cape).

The other focus is illegal mining, where troops will also be deployed in Gauteng (Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, West Rand districts), North West (Klerksdorp, Orkney, Stilfontein, Hartbeesfontein and Dr Ruth Mompati District) and Free State (Goldfields area).

As Daily Maverick's John Stupart has...