Ramaphosa warns criminals that soldiers deployed to WC, Gauteng ‘trained to kill’

President Cyril Ramaphosa said his deployment of the military to parts of the Western Cape and Gauteng is to protect the peace.

He’s also warned against those on the wrong side of the law that soldiers are not the police and are “trained to kill”.

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Ramaphosa to deploy soldiers in WC, Gauteng to quell gang violence, illegal mining

Ramaphosa was addressing the media at the Presidential Golf Challenge in Cape Town, which takes place every year after the State of the Nation Address (SONA).

In his SONA speech on Thursday night, Ramaphosa said that he’s directed the acting police minister and the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to develop a tactical plan to determine where security forces should be deployed within the next few days in the provinces.

He said the deployment seeks to deal with gang violence and illegal mining.

On Friday, Ramaphosa defended the plan, saying similar deployments have worked before.

“They’ve done extremely well whenever they’ve been deployed alongside the police. Of course, you must know that soldiers are not police people. Soldiers are trained to kill and to defend the people of South Africa. And in this case, they’ll be defending the peace.”

Ramaphosa said the plan by the defence force and police will include the costs for the deployment before informing Parliament.