One week after the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) deployed to the Western Cape as part of Operation Prosper, gang-related killings continue unabated in communities on the Cape Flats, according to community leaders.
More than 2,000 soldiers have been deployed nationwide under the operation, with a significant presence in the Western Cape working alongside the South African Police Service (SAPS) to address gang violence. The deployment began on 1 April, with soldiers entering areas such as Bishop Lavis on 2 April amid initial fanfare.
Graham Lindhorst, Chairperson of the Bishop Lavis Crime Prevention Forum, told media that the military presence has not delivered meaningful results. “Since they came into the area… they came in with fanfare because the children were happy and they were running after them and they were just driving through the areas,” he said. “Days after that you still found that you have the shootings, you have the murders and things are still continuing as if nothing has happened.”
Lindhorst argued that the SANDF deployment will not solve the crime problem. He described how soldiers typically drive around an area for about 10 minutes during the day before leaving, allowing gangsters to resume activities once they depart. “As long as you have SANDF that drives around for 10 minutes in an area during the day, not even at night and then goes out of the area, you will not have a solution because these gangsters, they look at how the operations are and they plan their own operations against what the law enforcement is planning,” he explained.
Recent incidents underscore his concerns. A mass shooting in Kalksteenfontein left three people dead, while further shootings and murders were reported over the weekend in Bishop Lavis and on Monday in Mitchells Plain.
Lindhorst criticised the lack of prior engagement with communities. “The government did not come to the communities to engage with them… we’ve always been saying nothing about us, without us and again they’ve done it and they will fail because they don’t know what is the need within our communities, where are the hotspots and the points where there’s problems,” he said. He noted that communities stand ready to assist but feel sidelined, as authorities “think they know it all.”
While acknowledging the deployment might temporarily stabilise the situation, Lindhorst emphasised that the root causes of crime in these areas are deeply social. “Our problems in the communities are of a social nature… drug addictions, moms no more moms and parents no more parents. Children becoming parents and fathers are absent,” he stated. “We don’t need more guns. We already have a lot of guns within our areas. We need to fix our social ills.”
He suggested that the more than R800 million allocated to the operation could yield better returns if invested directly in community programmes, employment initiatives, and addressing broken family structures. “It takes a village to raise a child. But if that village is sick or if that village is broken as it is broken now… unless we fix those things, we will not be able to fix the issues,” Lindhorst added.
Reflecting on past deployments, he recalled the 2019 SANDF intervention in the area, which saw a temporary downward trend in crime while troops were present. However, violence surged again after their departure. “It hasn’t done anything. We’ve seen they’ve come in and as soon as they leave all things starts again and nothing has been stopped,” he said. “It’s because they do not do disruptive operations. We need crime prevention to be done disruptively.”
Lindhorst stressed the need for long-term solutions over what he described as a temporary “bandage.” He warned that without tackling underlying social and economic challenges, crime will persist regardless of military involvement.
The operation is planned to run for a full year, until March 2027. Community reactions have been mixed, with some residents initially welcoming the visible presence while others remain sceptical about its effectiveness and concerned about potential heavy-handed tactics.
As violence continues in hotspots across the Cape Flats, questions persist about whether the SANDF deployment represents a genuine, sustainable solution or merely a short-term measure.
