'SAPS has failed': Eldorado Park welcomes SANDF deployment amid gang crisis

Eldorado Park residents, south of Johannesburg, say they are living in constant fear, with gangs allegedly targeting school-going children and luring them into a life of crime.

Last week, during the State of the Nation Address, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) would be deployed to crime-ridden areas in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

Eyewitness News visited Eldorado Park on Monday—an area notorious for crime in Gauteng—and engaged members of the community.

One resident says young people who refuse to join gangs are often threatened, coerced, or bullied into becoming members. She feels helpless about her son, whom she says is being forced to join a gang.

"These boys that attacked my son, they attend school with him; they are also in the gang, they go with knives…"

The Warrants and the Fast Guns are the two prominent gangs operating here in Eldorado Park. They allegedly extort money from or rob residents.

Some community members claim that even to enter a corner shop, they are forced to pay gang members.

READ: Eldorado Park residents demand permanent solutions amid army deployment

A local councillor belonging to the Patriotic Alliance, Juwairiya Kaldine, has welcomed the army deployment. She says the community has been failed by the police.

"For us as a coloured community is actually a relief because we don’t have functional police that are enforcing the law and unfortunately, the criminals lurk the streets even in broad daylight, and SAPS has clearly failed in terms of gang violence; our children are killing each other."

It is not clear when the army will be deployed, but residents here hope this will bring them much-needed reprieve.