Chantelle Benjamin
14 April 2008
Johannesburg — DEPUTY Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu's controversial "shoot to kill" comment has received African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma's backing.
Speaking at a gala dinner in KwaZulu-Natal on Friday night, Zuma said: "If you have a deputy minister saying the kind of things that the deputy minister was saying, this is what we need to happen. What the deputy minister was saying is, what we are to be doing is dealing with the criminals, rather than talking about it," said Zuma.
Shabangu told an anticrime rally in Pretoria last week that police should "kill the bastards" and leave concerns about the regulations to her.
Shabangu's comments sparked outrage in some quarters and received the backing of others in the past week.
The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) said it believed that telling the police to shoot to kill would not solve the crime problem, the government should deal instead with weaknesses within the safety and security system.
This view was supported by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) which called for the ministry of safety and security to rather explain how it intended dealing with the present crime problem.
This is after Shabangu became the latest of a line of ministers and senior officials to encourage the police to shoot criminals first, starting with safety and security minister Steve Tshwete in the late 1990s , but this view has done nothing to improve the levels of violent and organised crime.
The police, while balking at comparisons with other countries, admitted last year that if it could reduce contact crimes 7%- 10% a year consecutively , it would take SA at least another 10 years to reach the levels of many Interpol countries, giving an indication of how serious the problem is.
Johan Burger of the ISS said Shabangu's comments not only looked like an admission by the government that it was failing in its fight against crime, but was irresponsible, as courts were unlikely to sympathise with police officers who use excessive force.
"The deputy minister seemed almost exasperated on Wednesday, and while it is important for government to be seen to be taking a strong stance, it is not correct for her to have said she will take the blame, as it is police officers who will be held accountable in court for not abiding by the regulations," said Burger.
He said the police should rather examine weaknesses within and outside the criminal justice system that are contributing to crime such as "socio-economic factors and policies that are not being properly implemented".
The South African Police Service has increased its numbers to a public: private ratio of 1:370, which is better than the United Nations guideline of 1:400.
The CSVR said Shabangu's stance not only put officers in legal jeopardy but encouraged disrespect for the law.
"We call on the ministry to demonstrate clear leadership in dealing with the crime problem, and in addition, to clarify the legal situation regarding the use of force," it said.
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