‘Cops are soft targets now’, says expert as slain officers honoured on Saps Commemoration Day

Young children with tears streaking down their cheeks while clinging to the police teddy bears were among the family members who attended the Police Memorial Day at the Union Buildings.

On Sunday, President Cyril Ramaphosa led the annual South African Police Service (Saps) Commemoration Day event, hosted at the Police Memorial Site, along with the families of 33 police officers and reservists who lost their lives in the line of duty between 1 April 2021 and 31 March this year.

Samukelisiwe Mativate said she had mixed emotions.

“I still have some of the scars of losing my mom and I expect the scars to stay. Today feels like reliving the day we buried our mother, Colonel Beauty Mativate.”

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The colonel’s four children and 11 grandchildren attended the event.

Mativate’s family buried her on 9 January, after she was gunned down in a supermarket robbery on 30 December last year, when she responded to a burglary at a local supermarket in the Elukwatini area in Mpumalanga.

Eight suspects were arrested for the murder.

“We are here with our heads held high, celebrating the moment and passing on the last salute. We will forever be her salute; she was our hero.”

‘Investigate police killings’

Ramaphosa said police cannot win the fight against crime on their own.

“While we are here today to honour members of our police service who lost their lives in a particular financial year, we know that South African Police Service personnel face risk daily,” he said.

“General Masemola, on your appointment as the national commissioner of the police, you committed that you would prioritise the rejuvenation of community policing forums (CPF), which are legislated structures to bridge the divide between the local police and their communities,” he said.

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Ramaphosa said it was important that CPFs work so that communities can appreciate the role they played by working with the police and reporting criminals who live among them.

He said 187 suspects have been arrested for the murders of police officials since 2018, of which 55 accused have been convicted and sentenced in the same period.

“Minister (Bheki) Cele, I want to urge that your ministry drive the process of ensuring that the police is adequately resourced to prevent, combat and investigate police killings,” he said.

Perpetrators of attacks on police must be brought to book Ramaphosa said.

While the president and the minister commemorated the fallen heroes, unconfirmed reports suggested yet another robbery of a police station the previous night in Grootvlei, Mpumalanga.

Distrust of police

Dr Theo de Jager, chair of the board of the Southern Africa Agricultural Initiative (Saai), said while farmers were grateful for the dedicated policemen and women it was not enough to counter the growing crime crisis.

“For too long, the Saps has invested political criteria, rather than experience and expertise in senior appointments, thereby undermining the most central function of the state,” he said.

Criminologist and victimologist Professor Jaco Barkhuizen said it came down to public distrust of police.

“They have become soft targets, although they have weapons on them,” he said.

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Barkhuizen said South Africa was the only democratic state where police stations got robbed.

“It is absurdity that police station are being robbed,” he said.

Criminologist Witness Maluleke said police officials were targeted because they were investigating high-profile cases with the help of incriminating intelligence and this posed a threat to criminals.

“Unfortunately, they [police] do not carry high-calibre weapons while patrolling.

“They are just caught off-guard in most cases, and the police stations attacked of late in rural areas and townships are remote and isolated,” Maluleke said.