CAPE TOWN – Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s visit to the Cape Flats to assess progress under Operation Prosper has been met with sharp criticism from residents and community leaders, who argue the joint military-police deployment has failed to curb violence in gang-affected neighborhoods.
The visit, occurring nearly two months after the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) was deployed alongside police to stabilize the area, comes amid ongoing shootings and growing community frustration that government intervention remains more symbolic than substantive.
Local residents expressed deep disillusionment during the visit. One community member, speaking about the limited visible impact of the deployment, stated: “We only saw them twice and now today was three times since they’ve been deployed. So why—what do they do? What is their purpose here?” The resident, who has a four-year-old granddaughter, shared the child’s distress: “She asked me three weeks ago, ‘Ma, is this gangster paradise that we’re living in? I don’t want to stay in gangster paradise. I don’t want to die in gangster paradise.’ How can they say they haven’t failed us? They failed us deeply.”
Tensions were further heightened when representatives of the Community Policing Forum (CPF) reported being excluded from the Deputy President’s closed-door engagements, despite having extended invitations. CPF leaders questioned how effective crime-fighting strategies could be developed without involving established community structures. “What we experience today—where I, the CPF chairperson here, am told I’m not welcome in my own home—it’s a slap in the face,” one CPF representative said. “If that is government’s response to us as volunteers, then we as a community need to review our relationship with government, with the police, and other stakeholders.”
The visit follows a particularly violent weekend in which mass shootings and children caught in gang crossfire claimed at least 13 lives across the Cape Flats.
Addressing the community, Deputy President Paul Mashatile acknowledged the ongoing challenges while defending the operation’s intent. “I’m happy with the report I received from the police and the army about the work they are doing, but there is much more we need to do,” Mashatile said. “There are still people who are being killed in some parts of the Cape Flats, and we must make sure that we get to these culprits. They must be arrested and go to jail.” He emphasized that leaders “must not just sit in parliament” but come to communities to verify that security forces are performing their duties, adding that findings would be reported directly to the President.
However, anti-crime activists cautioned that communities are growing weary of operations that do not yield lasting safety. “For the police and the army to come with what we call optics—you know, even today we see it as going out into the communities—it’s showing but it’s not producing the kind of sustained change that we want to see,” one activist noted. They urged authorities to “start listening to those that speak on behalf of the community. We have committed people on the ground.”
As Operation Prosper continues, the gap between official assessments and lived community experiences remains a central challenge for authorities seeking to restore safety and trust in the Cape Flats.
