Quest for more cops in posts on frontline

THE country had more police officers employed in administrative and supervisory positions than in frontline activities, Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said yesterday.

He was outlining the ministry’s strategic plans in Pretoria as they aligned with his first 100 days in office.

Police visibility in communities would contribute towards deterring crime, he said.

“Currently, on average, the proportion of SAPS members at police stations involved in frontline activities totals 43%.

“This means that 57% of SAPS members are employed in administrative and supervisory positions.”

Mbalula said he intended to move swiftly to move administrative responsibilities from SAPS members to employees appointed as per the Public Service Administration Act. “This will allow more SAPS members to be involved in frontline activities.”

Announcing the theme “Society under siege – mobilising communities to action”, he said crime had become the biggest threat to freedoms and rights and a danger to national security.

“Our harsh approach to criminality is informed by the existing material conditions that compromise the safety and security of our country and its citizenry.”

Mbalula suggested creating a mobile app and making use of technology to report crime to assist in reducing the response time to crime incidents. “If we can use social media to report crimes, why not use it? Research shows that sexual and domestic violence are under-reported crimes due to barriers that do not support victims of these crimes,” he noted.

Some reasons provided for under-reporting, he said, included victims’ perception that they would be treated badly by the SAPS and other officials working in the criminal justice system and that nothing would come of reporting the crime to police.

In the current financial year he would be signing more policies, which were at an advanced stage of finalisation, that would also require implementations by the SAPS and other stakeholders, he said.

Next week, the minister will launch the Wafa Wanya Tsotsi campaign, which will focus on hunting down criminals and locking them away.

“Police officers must be fit for this; it must be chest out and not stomach out, and this starts with the minister; no mkhaba (big belly).”

Mbalula added that South Africa had recorded a high number of serial rape and serial murder cases last year. “This high number of incidents of serial murders and serial rapes resulted in South Africa being mentioned among countries with the highest crime globally.”

Police officers needed to fight crime and stop being aligned to criminals, Mbalula said.

There were a lot of good police officers who worked hard, and only a few who were corrupt, the minister noted.

“We need to work together to combat crime and stop being on the criminals’ payroll. Our aim is to hunt all criminals and lock them up,” he said.

“We will shoot to kill, shoot to defend the innocent and ourselves to ensure law and order,” he stated.

Mbalula said crime would quickly become a thing of the past as the “new sheriff is in town”.

Youth diversion programmes, involving various sporting codes, would also be established, he said.

Police officers must be fit for this; it must be chest out, not stomach out