SA police are sitting ducks for thugs

It is a sad, but accurate, comment on the state of our lawless criminal paradise of a country, that the police don’t feel safe inside their police stations for fear they will be attacked by thugs looking for guns.

These attacks will increase, believe experts, because stricter gun laws mean the availability of firearms for criminals is not keeping pace with the demand.

It doesn’t help, of course, that many of our police stations – especially in rural areas – have poor security
and the personnel running them are undertrained and, therefore, vulnerable.

Also Read: Politics, poor training have made police stations easy targets for criminal syndicates

University of Stellenbosch criminologist Dr Guy Lamb believes we, as a society, should be very worried about this phenomenon because criminal gangs are getting access to high-powered, automatic weapons, which are used not only on hard targets like cash-intransit vehicles, but also on soft ones, like home invasions and car hijackings.

ALSO READ: Crime stats: This province has the most farm murders

The situation is made much worse by the reality that our hat-wearing cowboy of a police minister, Bheki Cele, clearly doesn’t see eye to eye with his police commissioner, General Khehla Sitole.

That instability impacts not only morale in lower ranks, but also impedes programmes to improve cop training and installation security.

Our police officers deserve better than being helpless targets for criminals.