The anti-crime organisation known as PAGAD (People Against Gangsterism and Drugs) has called for the US Marines to be sent home, describing their presence in Cape Town as a threat to national sovereignty. 

This is after members of the US Marine Corps were recently seen training alongside metro police cadets in Muizenberg.  

The City of Cape Town has maintained that the engagement was an informal fitness exercise aimed at boosting morale and fitness standards. 

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However, PAGAD has strongly rejected the collaboration, expressing concern at what it views as the growing involvement of foreign military personnel in local policing environments. 

“We state categorically and without reservation: There is no such thing as a benign US military footprint on African soil,” read PAGAD’s 13 April statement. 

While it acknowledged the need to upskill law enforcement officers, PAGAD dismissed claims that this engagement would be beneficial. It referred to some of the actions seen by officials with the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.  

“The South African public is well-informed on the brutality displayed by ICE and other United States law enforcement structures and categorically states that such methods are inconsistent with our Constitutional dispensation. Indeed, we find such methods abhorrent and strongly urge our state structures to be circumspect about whom they partner with in training initiatives.” 

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The organisation further criticised the historical role of the United States, claiming it “stood shoulder-to-shoulder with the apartheid regime”, and argued that any current involvement undermines South Africa’s constitutional values. 

PAGAD warned that “the presence of US Marines in Cape Town – no matter how small the contingent or limited the scope – is a direct threat to our national sovereignty”. 

It has called on the government and civil society to oppose the initiative.