Business Day (Johannesburg)
Wyndham Hartley
19 October 2009
Cape Town — Shooting at cars was not part of the training police officers received, although all recruits were educated in the laws governing the use of lethal force, South African Police Service (SAPS) divisional commissioner for training Gary Kruser has told Parliament.
Last Friday, a delegation from the SAPS, briefing Parliament's police committee on its annual report, faced a barrage of questions clearly related to the recent death of Olga Kekana, who was killed after police allegedly opened fire on the car she was in, having mistaken her and her friends for hijackers .
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa , national commissioner Bheki Cele and President Jacob Zuma have been sharply criticised for their intemperate language in recent months when urging police to shoot to kill and to fight fire with fire.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe, clearly referring to the 13 bullet holes found in the car, asked if police were trained to shoot at the tyres to stop a car or to shoot at the car itself. Other MPs wanted to know if recruits were given any instruction on the laws which governed their actions and if officers who had failed operational training courses were deployed in an operational role, a move that would contribute to the rising death toll among police officers as poorly- trained officers were put into situations they could not handle .
Replying to the questions, Kruser assured MPs that if recruits failed operational training they had to do remedial work before being required to redo the course. He said they were not deployed until they had passed the operational training.
However, he said shooting at cars or their tyres formed no part of that training.
Kruser also said entry-level recruits were required to study a module on the legal environment in which they would be operating. They could not become police officers if they failed to pass this module.
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