Deputy President Paul Mashatile engages with a child during a walkabout in Tafelsig, Mitchells Plain, as part of Wednesday’s Operation Prosper oversight visit.
Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile on Wednesday said Operation Prosper will soon move into a more targeted anti-gang phase focused on gang leaders, extortion syndicates and organised crime financiers operating across the Cape Flats.
Patekile made the remarks during Deputy President Paul Mashatile’s oversight visit to gang-affected communities including Tafelsig, Lentegeur and Gugulethu.
Mashatile was joined by senior police leadership, SANDF members and deputy ministers during the visit aimed at assessing progress made under Operation Prosper, the anti-gang intervention launched earlier this year following President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that SANDF members would be deployed alongside police in crime-ridden communities across Cape Town.
During a briefing in Tafelsig, Patekile said authorities had already recorded reductions in gang-related violence in several hotspot policing precincts during the first phase of the operation, which has been active for nearly a month.
