The fact is, soldiers patrolling the streets of the Cape Flats is a terrible thing.
It’s an extreme measure that signifies catastrophic failure on multiple levels; most obviously by the State to keep us safe.
In a perfect world, we should never have to interact with our military on a day-to-day basis.
It is also the sign of a failure of the combined democratic, capitalistic and socio-political forces meant to provide citizens with a sense of community ownership.
When operating optimally, these forces are meant to bring balance to a community most of the time.
And there are many societies in which it works almost perfectly most of the time; yes, even in developing nations like our own.
Social media has been ablaze with observations and criticisms focusing on the above.
But there is another failure that few of us are comfortable with admitting out loud; and that is our failure as citizens to uphold our end of the deal.
It’s just easier to pass the buck and look to government to solve our social ills; some of it of our own making.
And, of course, everyone and their dog has an opinion on what should be done, usually by someone else, preferably with little or no involvement from themselves.
Let’s just be honest and admit that many of us who criticise the army’s presence are a little more privileged than those who have to run the gauntlet of gang bullets every day.
While some of us still live in the geographic Cape Flats, we have managed to “escape” the ghetto and are able to safeguard ourselves relatively well with electric fences and armed response.
Let’s look at the deployment in the context of what’s happening and why their presence is even needed in the first place.
I can quote the daily killings, mass murders and brazen shootings to which we have become desensitised of late.
But most of us have become numb to the numbers.
The fact that six Anti-Gang Unit members were shot in one gunfight with gangsters not too long ago, should tell us all we need to know about why something as extreme as soldiers is a necessity.
I don’t even have time to address the fear, trauma, anxiety and low-level depression with which we are all forced to live as a result.
Of course I share the concern that more innocent people may die, this time in “friendly fire” from soldiers’ rifles.
I am fully aware that the SANDF is not trained for civilian law enforcement and crowd control and that their default setting is to shoot first and ask questions later.
ATTACKED: The Anti-Gang Unit. Photo: Supplied.
But the argument that our children will be more traumatised by the daily presence of peace-keeping soldiers, than by dead bodies left behind by sudden gang battles, makes no sense.
As I said before, what’s happening on the Cape Flats is not normal!
So we can no longer rely on normal solutions.
Militaries have evolved into peace-keeping forces that are able to adapt to circumstances as required.
The SANDF has been deployed to several African cities over the years as part of joint peace-keeping units, so I don’t think this is necessarily far outside of their mandate anymore.
I see this as a stabilisation and normalisation exercise to give us all a moment to catch our breath and, more importantly, to support police to take back control.
And this is where our part as a community comes in.
Turning the threat of violence against those who threaten us is not the only solution.
The soldiers could be gone in the next three months and then we could be back to square one.
So whether you agree with the action or not, there’s an opportunity to play a very valuable part, by making sure gangster guns remain silent in the long term.
As groups and individuals, we need to sit down and plan our collective role in this.
How can we support this effort?
Remember, we do things every day that we don’t necessarily like or agree with. But we do them because our jobs, lives or well-being depend on it.
This is no different. In fact, this is arguably more important than any of that.
Once we have regained our own safety, then we can focus on all the other necessities that will improve our society. But let’s not sit around and criticise!
Because the question is not whether the military’s presence is right or wrong.
The question is, how are we going to help make sure that we never have to consider the question again?