The chairperson of Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Defence and Military Veterans, Dakota Legoete, has called for the SA National Defence Force to be deployed to fight crime.
This is necessary because South Africa’s sovereignty is at stake. “Currently,” he said, “as a state, our sovereignty is undermined by the criminal element in our country to an extent that not even 29 000 people are dying in Ukraine. Not even 29 000 people are dying in Eastern DRC, but in our case, 29 000 people die in the hands of criminals whilst we have the SA National Defence Force, the police and intelligence.”
It is not clear what the figure of 29 000 people referred to, although one media report said that he claimed this to be happening daily.
He proposed that the President sign a proclamation that would combine police, intelligence, military and home affairs capacities to fight crime.
Crime should also be declared a war against humanity.
When the state is not able to feed, develop and defend its people, the state ceased to be much of a state at all, he added.