COPE calls for an appointment of a trained police commissioner

A trained national police commissioner might make a difference in the ongoing killings by police.

This was voiced by opposition party,COPE, following a number of unfortunate incidents where protestors were killed during service delivery protests.

According to COPE, a number of protesters have been shot dead in Mpumalanga during service delivery protests that took place since 2009 when armed police shot a protester dead in Mashishing near Lydenburg.

Other victims were reportedly killed by police in areas such as the Mpumalanga Eastern Highveld over the years.

“The sad reality is that incidents in which police shoot and kill people during service delivery protests and any other protest such as the Marikana incident will not stop anytime soon.

As Cope in Mpumalanga we are very worried about these killings, just yesterday reports said Tshepo Babuseng of Taung in the North West Province was shot dead by police during yet another protest.” said COPE’s Riot Hlatshwayo.

He also added that the president of Cope, Mosiuoa Lekota once called for a national police commissioner to be a trained police officer instead of what “we have so far seen with the deployment of the disgraces Jackie Selebi, the Cowboy Beki Cele and now of late, Ria Phiyega”.

The national organizer for Cope, Sizile Ndlovu, had this to say about the ongoing killings by police:

“The national police commissioner and the minister of police have both been deployed by the ANC. Now people in South Africa and elsewhere in the country will say the people in this country are killed by the government of the ANC.

Why is President Jacob Zuma not appointing a national police commissioner who would have undergone the necessary training to become a cop?

Service delivery protests will still go a long way for as long as our people do not have jobs, services, houses, decent roads and so on.”