South Africa deploys troops in Johannesburg to tackle organized crime

Soldiers were deployed on the streets of South Africa’s biggest city on Wednesday after the president announced plans last month to use the army to help police fight gang violence and illegal mining.

The soldiers were seen in the Johannesburg suburb of Riverlea in the first major deployment since President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his annual speech to the nation that organised crime was the greatest threat to South Africa’s democracy and economic development.

South Africa's police and the Department of Defense, which oversees the military, did not immediately provide details on the deployment.

Ramaphosa said in a notice to the Speaker of Parliament that 550 soldiers would be involved in an initial deployment in Gauteng, including Johannesburg, to help combat crime and preserve law and order. That deployment would last until the end of April, he said.

The government plans a wider deployment in five of its nine provinces, according to details submitted by police to Parliament. The deployment will focus on illegal mining in the Gauteng, North West and Free State provinces, and gang violence in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape provinces.

Parts of the national deployment could last more than a year, police officials said.

South Africa has high rates of violent crime. Police reported 6,351 homicides from October to December 2025, an average of nearly 70 a day in a country of around 62 million people.