The efforts by the joint security forces to stabilize the areas will continue as planned and “we will stop at nothing to ensure that innocent people are and feel safe,” Sitole said in a statement.

He was speaking following an attack on police officers in Delft, a Cape Town suburb early Sunday. In the attack, one police officer was killed and two of his colleagues seriously wounded. A suspect, who was wounded in a shootout with police, was arrested.

Police said the officers were performing crime prevention duties in the township when an unknown man started shooting at their vehicle.

“The attack on our police officers this morning must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by all members of society,” Sitole said.

The attack came despite the deployment of troops in Delft and other communities where gangs have been spiralling out of control.

The deployment began on Thursday and have continued ever since.

Sitole said police, in partnership with the deployed soldiers, will not be deterred in the fight against gangs.

For more than a decade, the City of Cape Town had called on the national government to deploy the army to gang-ridden communities in support of police, amid mounting complaints among residents over police’s inability to contain gangs.

Earlier this month, President Cyril Ramaphosa approved the deployment of troops, a move which he said was an integrated approach to tackling “the most extreme incidents of violent crime.”

The troops would be deployed to support the police to restore law and maintain order in communities that are being terrorized by gangsterism, Ramaphosa said.