South Africa has sent soldiers into Johannesburg as part of a crackdown aimed at curbing gang violence and illegal mining, with the military operating in support of police, according to the plan outlined by President Cyril Ramaphosa and a report by The Associated Press.
The soldiers entered apartment blocks and moved through the Riverlea and Westbury suburbs of Johannesburg on Wednesday, as residents watched the deployment begin on the ground. The Associated Press reported that many residents in Riverlea expressed relief, saying they hoped the presence of security forces would help stem the violence.
One Riverlea resident, Pearl Hilma, told The Associated Press that she supports the crackdown because “there’s lots of gangsterism as well as gunshots every night” in her neighborhood. In the area, some buildings displayed graffiti signs denouncing crime, including one near a school that read, “No to Guns, Pray for our Community.”
The police and South Africa’s Department of Defense did not immediately provide details on the deployment’s operational arrangements, beyond the announcement that the military would be under police command during the operation. Authorities had earlier said the military deployment would begin March 1 in different parts of the country, but it was delayed while soldiers received training.
Ramaphosa said the use of soldiers followed his speech to the nation last month, where he told South Africans that he would use the army against organized crime. He described it as “the greatest threat to democracy and the country’s economic development,” language that was reflected in his subsequent notice to Parliament.
In that notice to the Speaker of Parliament, Ramaphosa said 550 soldiers would be involved in an initial deployment in Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg, and that the deployment would last until the end of April. The government also planned a wider deployment in five of South Africa’s nine provinces, with police submitting details to Parliament on the focus areas for each region.
Under the plan, deployments would focus on illegal mining in Gauteng, North West and Free State, and on gang violence in Western Cape and Eastern Cape, according to the AP report. The Associated Press also said parts of the national deployment could last more than a year.
The announcement comes amid persistent levels of violent crime. Police reported 6,351 homicides from October to December 2025, an average of nearly 70 a day in a country of around 62 million people, and there are also high numbers of attempted murders and violent assaults, the AP report said.
South Africa has deployed the army several times in recent years, including in 2021 when outbreaks of unrest and looting in two provinces, sparked by the imprisonment of former President Jacob Zuma and frustration over COVID-19 lockdowns, led to the deaths of more than 350 people. Ramaphosa said the latest deployment had been carefully considered given the army’s past use to crush pro-democracy protests during apartheid, which ended in 1994.
He said the current deployment had “become necessary due to a surge in violent organized crime that threatens the safety of our people and the authority of the state.” The deployment was widely welcomed, but some political parties said it amounted to an admission that police have largely failed to curb crime.
As residents weighed the prospect of faster reaction to shootings, another Riverlea-area resident, Yasin Botha, told The Associated Press that the presence of both police and military reassured him that authorities would respond more quickly. Botha said, “Currently, I feel unsafe because we don’t know when the next shooting is going to happen and we don’t know who it is targeted at.”