MEC: Western Cape residents happy about troop deployment
Western Cape MEC for Community Safety Minister Albert Fritz says residents of Cape Town have given the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troop a warm welcome.
The SANDF deployed their troops in the province of Thursday, startingin Manenberg on the Cape Flats, a week after Police Minister Bheki Cele announced that the army would be deployed to gang-stricken areas.
Fritz says the residents are grateful that the police are being given a helping hand.
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"And I must say they were warmly welcomed by all citizens of those communities that were for the last few years were going under siege of violence."
Fritz says the troops are serving as back-up to the police.
"So that they can do search and seizures so they can do arrests and they do all these kinds of things without the army getting involved the army was just backing up them. That multiplier of force so the police can do their work.
"People reported to us that for the first time last night they could sleep without bullets flying over their heads."
This past weekend the Mother City had recorded 43 murders, a decrease from the previous weekend which saw 55 murders.