WATCH: Concerns arise as US Marines integrated into Metro Police cadets' fitness training

While the City of Cape Town has introduced the United States Marines to share its fitness regimen with Metro Police cadets to build "discipline and readiness", some have raised concerns about legal governance and accountability.

The city’s mayoral committee member for safety and security, Alderman JP Smith, said this was an opportunity for cadets to experience a marine-style fitness drill. 

“The engagement between the City’s Public Safety Training College (PTSC) and Marines based at the US Consulate in Cape Town was a fitness exercise and an opportunity for officers to experience marine-style fitness drills. The city has, in recent years, as part of its expansion of the PSTC, started placing a stronger emphasis on the physical fitness of enforcement services, with ongoing assessments of all levels of staff,” he said.  

Smith also stated that this informal training session did not cost a cent. 

“The engagement with the marines was an informal arrangement where staff could measure their fitness standards against that of another entity. It was not a formal training engagement, and there was no cost involved to the city as the marines are based in Cape Town, at their consulate."

He further stated that the city had engaged with cities and governments across the world to learn about or identify ways in which it was able to improve its abilities. 

Smith said this was not the first time the city had done these types of engagements.

In April 2024, a training course on cyber forensics for first responders was presented by experts in the field from France and Australia. 

Not everyone was pleased with the presence of the US Marines.

The GOOD party’s Councillor Jonathan Cupido said this could not be brushed off as a simple fitness session but stated it raised serious legal governance and accountability concerns. 

“Municipal policing in South Africa is not a free-for-all. The Constitution is clear that municipal police services must operate within a national legislative framework, and the South African Police Service Act makes it equally clear that the National Commissioner determines the standards and training applicable to municipal police. The city does not have the authority to improvise training arrangements outside of that framework,” Cupido said. 

He said the city’s confirmation of "ongoing international operation" with references to not only fitness training but broader areas immediately raised red flags. 

He said the City of Cape Town now had to answer clearly and publicly: 

• Under what legal authority were US Marines involved in training a municipal police service?
• Was this authorised or approved by the National Commissioner of SAPS?
• Was this strictly limited to physical training, or did it extend into policing functions?
• What agreement governs this “international cooperation”, and what are its terms?
• What did this cost, and who approved it?

“Cape Town already has accredited training structures for its law enforcement and Metro Police. If the city now requires foreign military involvement to train its officers, then something is fundamentally wrong with its own systems.” 

“More importantly, this creates a dangerous blurring of lines between military structures and civilian policing, something our constitutional framework is deliberately designed to prevent. Residents are not asking for beach drills and PR moments. They are asking for safer communities, visible policing, functioning investigations, and real consequences for criminals. This appears more like a distraction than a safety intervention,” Cupido said. 

He further stated that if the city believed this was appropriate, it should have no problem placing the full legal basis, approvals, and agreements on record. 

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