We must not normalise the militarisation of our democracy, EFF MP warns

South Africa is at risk of normalising military deployments for internal crises, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) MP Carl Niehaus told Parliament as he criticised the repeated use of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to manage domestic unrest.

EFF backs deployment but with reservations

According to IOL, the Economic Freedom Fighters supports the deployment of SANDF soldiers to help restore stability amid the protests and violence linked to the actions of March and March. At the same time, the party cautioned that relying on soldiers to manage domestic crises threatens to blur the line between defence and policing.

Late notice to Parliament and oversight concerns

According to IOL, on 9 July the Joint Standing Committee on Defence was presented with a presidential letter dated 30 June and a Department of Defence briefing that only reached members the night before the meeting. The late delivery of documents, the MP argued, weakens parliamentary oversight and makes it difficult for elected representatives to hold the Executive to account.

Scale of the deployment and language used

The Department of Defence briefing repeatedly described the deployment as a “contingency” and placed the soldiers on “standby posture”. According to IOL, 3,405 members of the SANDF have been deployed across all nine provinces in response to domestic protests.

Questions over funding

According to IOL, the R54.6 million required for this deployment is being presented as unforeseen expenditure within the overall Operation Prosper allocation. The MP highlighted that the government had already announced a dedicated R600 million to address the instability caused by the March and March protests and related activities, and said Parliament deserves clarity on why the current deployment cost is not being drawn from that allocation.

Constitutional role and longer-term risks

Niehaus warned that treating military deployments as routine risks turning the SANDF into a default response to social and political problems rather than an exceptional, time-bound measure allowed under the Constitution. He said this shift endangers the constitutional distinction between the role of the defence force and that of the police and could make it harder to reverse internal deployments over time.

Calls for accountability and root-cause solutions

The MP urged the Joint Standing Committee on Defence to demand timely, accurate information from the Executive, insist on clarity regarding funding, and press the government to address the underlying causes of instability rather than repeatedly resorting to military deployments.