Madam Speaker, it was announced yesterday that the President of the Republic of South Africa has authorised the internal deployment of military units to help the police end the xenophobic violence in Gauteng. Under normal circumstances, the IFP would not support the internal deployment of army units as they are not suited or properly trained to deal with civilians.
However, in this particular case, the IFP recognises that the situation is not normal and that the police need any help they can get. Our support for army deployment comes with very strict pre-conditions. Firstly, the military unit must be under direct control of the police; they must also provide assistance requested by the police and the military unit should not be involved in criminal investigations at all.
Secondly, great care should be taken to ensure that military units are not directly involved in crowd control. They are simply not trained for such situations. Thirdly, the military units should be subjected to stricter rules of engagement with the use of minimal force as a prerequisite. Care should also be taken not to deploy any weapons with the units. Finally, the unitary units should only be deployed in areas where the greatest threats exists and not at any area wider than that. I thank you.