{"id":323157,"date":"2026-01-26T14:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=323157"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:35:42","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T06:35:42","slug":"south-africa-pres-ramaphosa-mulls-army-deployment-to-combat-gang-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/?p=323157","title":{"rendered":"South Africa: Pres Ramaphosa mulls army deployment to combat gang violence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img src=\"https:\/\/media.citizen.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ramaphosa-deploys-sandf.jpg\" alt=\"President Cyril Ramaphos deploy soldiers\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>CAPE TOWN, Jan 26 (NNN-XINHUA) &#8212; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government is considering deploying the army to gang violence hotspots to tackle persistent gang-related crime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The president&#8217;s remarks came amid a surge in gang-related fatal incidents in several parts of the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;A call has been made to deploy the army,&#8221; Ramaphosa told journalists on Saturday morning outside the African National Congress National Executive Committee Lekgotla, a local term referring a key political or government meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>However, he cautioned that soldiers are trained to neutralize threats rather than conduct investigations, so any decision to deploy them requires careful consideration. Ramaphosa stressed the need for a balanced approach in addressing the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The gang violence is one of those challenges that we&#8217;re facing. That is very prominent in our minds,&#8221; Ramaphosa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Last weekend, at least 26 people were killed in a spate of gang-related violence in the Cape Flats, Cape Town, Western Cape Province. The violence included a mass shooting in Marikana, Philippi East Township, which left eight people dead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The region has long been plagued by gang-related violence. Police statistics show 2,104 murders were reported in Cape Flats in the first nine months of 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Between Dec. 29, 2025, and Jan. 11, 2026, the area recorded 58 gang-related murders and 60 attempted murders, according to Ian Cameron, chairperson of parliament&#8217;s portfolio committee on police.\u00a0&#8212; NNN-XINHUA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>CAPE TOWN, Jan 26 (NNN-XINHUA) &#8212; South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government is considering deploying the army to gang violence hotspots to tackle persistent gang-related crime. The president&#8217;s remarks came amid a surge in gang-related fatal incidents in several parts of the country. &#8220;A call has been made to deploy the army,&#8221; Ramaphosa [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":323158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[213],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323157"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=323157"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323157\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323159,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323157\/revisions\/323159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/323158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=323157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=323157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/namnewsnetwork.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=323157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}