CAPE TOWN - Questions are being raised about who will take orders from who as soldiers help police fight crime.
The Portfolio Committee on Police chair, Ian Cameron, says they want clarity on the operation's scope and mandate.
Cameron said at a recent joint standing committee on defense meeting that the SANDF indicated that they would not take instructions from the South African Police Service.
"This is hugely problematic because that means that we now have soldiers doing police work without the police. Obviously, they're not trained for that."
He said there was a massive gap in communication between the South African Police Service and the SANDF.
"We indicated that we need a joint meeting between the Police Portfolio Committee and the Joint Standing Committee on Defense. That hasn't happened yet. The letter to schedule that only went off yesterday or today."
"The long and the short of it is parliament hasn't approved any form of deployment, from what we know, certainly not in terms of what was said by the president at the Nation Address. It could be a deployment from previously specifically focused, for example, on illegal mining.
"But nevertheless, specifically relating to organised crime and gang violence, this deployment doesn't make sense," Cameron added.
However, Dakota Legoete, Portfolio Committee on Defence chairperson said there was no need to panic about the army's deployment without Parliament's approval.
Legoete said President Cyril Ramaphosa was well within his right to deploy soldiers to fight crime.
“I'm very very clear in terms of section 201, subsection 4, that even if Parliament has not approved upon seven days after the deployment of the National Defence Force, the matter can still be referred to the Twin Standing Committee of Defence, or both houses portfolio committee from the NCOP and portfolio committee from the National Assembly. I don't think there's any need to panic."