New Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu. (Photo by Gallo Images/Die Burger/Lulama Zenzile)
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu plans to bring out the big guns to fight high crime levels with various urgent interventions, including measures to combat gang violence, the construction mafia and the killing of women and children.
“We have spent the first week in office meeting the executive management, provincial commissioners and divisional heads of the South African Police Service,” he said.
“We have done this to ensure that we have a broad understanding of the portfolio, including the challenges and opportunities, so that we can map out the priorities and urgent tasks at hand.”
Mchunu said decisive action was needed to get crime under control.
“The levels and types of crime differ from one province to the other. We need to take this into account as we implement the integrated National Crime Prevention Strategy,” he said.
“The leading crimes in the country are contact crimes such as murder and rape, as well as hijacking and kidnapping for ransom payments.
“The killing of women and children also continues to be cause for serious concern and warrants intensive action.”
Mchunu said gang violence was also on the rise, noticeably in the Western Cape.
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“The situation must be controlled so that children in the Cape Flats, Khayelitsha (Site C), parts of Nelson Mandela Bay and parts of Gauteng can be able to play in the streets without fear of being hit by stray bullets,” he said.
Mchunu said the safety of the police officers was a priority as they acted as a buffer between the citizens and anarchy.
“Anyone who attacks a police officer is declaring war on the state and the people. We condemn the attacks and killing of police officers,” he said.
Portfolio committee on police chair Ian Cameron has welcomed the new minister’s intention to make available the required resources, including information and technology tools and vehicles, to ensure that police stations are well resourced to fight crime.
“Plans to remedy the current trend of some police stations with high crime rates, for example, Harare in Cape Town, that operate with high police to population ratios, while other police stations in more affluent areas operate at lower police to population ratios, are welcomed,” said Cameron.
He also said it was important to remedy the imbalance in resource allocation in critical areas such as the budget allocation to the police VIP protection unit, in comparison to allocations to the family violence, child protection and sexual offences unit.
AfriForum’s community safety chief spokesperson Johan Broodryk expressed confidence in Mchunu and his administration.
“We will continue to foster good working relationships with the police and the minister. We look forward to what he can do and working with the new administration,” he said.
“We will also not hesitate to call out any form of corruption or political interference.
“Our 177 neighbourhood and farm watch structures nationwide have good relationships with their local police stations and officers. We look forward to fostering these relationships on higher levels as well.”
But criminologist Dr Witness Maluleke wasn’t as optimistic about the minister’s promises to deal with crime.
“Talk shops like these have been held over the years, without proper implementation,” he said.
Maluleke said there was hope that this could be a new avenue, but doubted that it would bear positive results.
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