Police Minister Bheki Cele. Photo: Michel Bega
Criminals must stop shooting at us, and we’ll stop shooting back, says Minister of Police Bheki Cele.
However, an analyst said more reform intelligence measures were required in order for police officials to avoid deadly incidents.
Outlining successes in takedown operations, Cele yesterday said the police were aware of concerns raised by the public over the increasing number of criminal suspects killed in shootings with the police, and would be investigating the incidents.
Nine suspects in Mariannhill, west of Durban, and six suspects in Mpumalanga had been killed in recent gun battles with police.
According to Cele, the aim of the police was to arrest those believed to have committed a crime but some heavily armed suspects chose to open fire, and the police would continue to push back when in danger.
He said criminals had been warned that if they engaged the police instead of surrendering, they would come short and “police have and will come out on top during these takedowns”.
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“Crime is not at acceptable levels and communities have called on the Saps [SA Police Service] to respond to their crime concerns,” said Cele.
“There is no doubt that these criminals and many others are ruthless and arrogant. Their actions demonstrate that they will eliminate anything and anyone that stands in their way.”
“Criminals have waged a war on communities and are so brazen, they are testing the authority of the state by attacking police officers. It is on this score, that police remain unapologetic in their aggressive and decisive response to crime.”
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Independent intelligence analyst Anele Chiba said the minister was trying to create the impression that deadly force translated to an effective crime prevention strategy, but he was mistaken.
No-one was trying to take away the Section 49 Subsection 2 of the Criminal Procedures Act, where police would apply force when necessary or in self-defence, but there was a need to establish a clear procedural method in applying deadly force, he said.
“Something [is] wrong with our contemporary crime control model, whether it’s a normalisation approach or stabilisation approach, which is a technical response. We need to find the root cause in order to limit the amount of these incidents.
“We need to reform policing and intelligence. We don’t want to find ourselves on a path where we are considering militarising the police because the heat from the criminals is too much for them to handle.”
Chiba added policing and intelligence also needed reform because the Saps was failing to prevent, reduce and control crime.
Cele said in the past 11 months, 109 police officials had been killed, 36 while on duty.
“Through investigative work conducted by the DPCI [Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation], 83 suspects have been arrested in connection with the police killings,” he said.
“The death of any individual, criminal or not, should never be a cause of celebration. But with some in society doing so following the takedown of the armed gangs in KZN and Mpumalanga this week, speaks volumes.”
The Saps buried Sergeant Sibongiseni Khoza this weekend. He was shot and killed in the line of duty on Good Friday.
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So far 3 749 suspects had been apprehended during intelligence-led takedowns, Cele said.
These included 173 arrests for murder, 57 for extortion and kidnapping, 164 for property-related crimes, 269 for vehicle-related crimes, 768 for possession of illegal firearms, and 488 and 79 for robberies and cash-in-transit robberies respectively, while 1 510 were drug-related arrests and 214 were for illicit mining.
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