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Police are seen alongside members of the army in Cape Town as part of efforts to fight crime in this image captured on 01 April 2026.
The Cape Flats Safety Forum says the recent shooting incidents in the area raise concerns about the effectiveness of the newly-deployed South African Defence Force (SANDF) members.
The remarks follow two shooting incidents at a taxi rank in Portlands, Mitchells Plain on the Cape Flats, which claimed three lives.
One person was shot and killed at the rank earlier today, and two others were shot dead in the afternoon.
The forum’s chairperson Abie Isaacs has called on all law enforcement agencies to flood the area and leave no stone unturned.
“We are starting to question the effectiveness of the SANDF in particular, because, remember when we start questioning, it is the same SANDF that is now guided by the South African Police Service (SAPS) where the community at one stage had mistrust in the police. So, that is the issue that we are having. But we will only be able to, from a Cape Flats organisation perspective, give a full view on the SANDF deployment, whether it’s successful or not in 14 days because they’ve just been deployed,” says Isaacs.
