Sapu condemns police killings

THE SOUTH African Policing Union (Sapu) has condemned recent killings of police officers across the country and called for a review of a section of the Criminal Procedure Amendment Act.

“There must be a legal provision for police officers not to (have to) wait for criminals to kill them before shooting back,” said second vice-president of Sapu,Thabo Matsose.

Matsose said under the current Section 49 of the act, the lives of police officers were at risk. He said the union wants the government to consider the earlier call for a review by the then national police commissioner, Bheki Cele.

In 2009, Cele called for a review of Section 49 and allegedly encouraged police to “shoot to kill” criminals. According to Cele’s argument then – and Sapu’s now – the section gives criminals more rights than law-abiding citizens and police officers.

Matsose emphasised that Sapu was not encouraging “trigger happy” police officers, adding they wanted to state “that we are not calling for an eye-for-an-eye approach”.

The call, said Matsose, was purely about police protecting themselves.

In pursuit of a constitutional amendment, Matsose called on Members of Parliament to set aside political differences “in order to protect our protectors – the police”.

On Monday, the Cape Argus reported that there had been four attacks on police officers in the Western Cape in one week. Hawks spokesman Lieutenant Lloyd Ramovha said most of the guns used to shoot at police officers were illegal.

“They (guns) differ from case to case, but most of them are illegal. Investigations, once done, usually tell if the gun used was illegal or not,” he said.

Criminals using handguns, mostly unlicensed ones, has become a serious problem in the city. So far this month, police had arrested 14 people in connection with the possession of unlicen-sed firearms and ammunition. – ANA