We dropped the ball
Minister says SAPS is in far worse state than when he was fired as commissioner in 2011
57 murders a day
The great110 depression rapes a day
But SA has 10 000 fewer cops than in 2011
Tuesday’s shocking crime statistics were a product of the police “dropping the ball”‚ admitted police minister Bheki Cele.
The minister fell just short of placing the blame for the cutback of 10 000 police officers at the feet of his predecessors‚ including Fikile Mbalula‚ whom he referred to as honourable minister Razzmatazz‚ but it was clear that the 2017/2018 book year was disastrous for the service and for society.
He did not directly pin the blame on Mbalula‚ nor any of the top brass by name. “I don’t want to say who dropped the ball but ... Ok, let me not go there. We have lost the United Nations’ norm of policing which says one policeman to 220 citizens. One police officer is now looking at almost double that.”
Cele revealed that SA had 200 000 police in 2010‚ but the figure has since dropped to 191 000 currently. “We are 10 000 police down‚ which means that we do have a problem.”
However, Mbalula said Cele would have been mistaken to refer to him as he did not spend enough time as minister of police to drop the ball.
“My tenure did not last more than a year. How can the crime statistics be attributed to me when I put systems into place that will ensure that minister Cele is able to thrive.”
He said the instability seen in the police service could be attributed to years of bad appointments at key positions, noting that it would be unfair to point a finger at him.
“I doubt that minister Cele had me in mind when he said someone dropped the ball. I don’t think he was talking about me. The justice system has been plagued with the bad decisions and bad appointments that crippled the justice system,” said Mbalula.
National police commissioner Khehla Sitole explained that the 10 000 difference was between 2010 and now and not necessarily looking at a population increase versus the current number. “In the business case that we have put forward, our deficit is 62 000,” Sitole said.
Sitole said in this financial year‚ the SAPS could only afford an intake of 3 000 police but after engagement with Cele‚ they decided to cut somewhere else and increase the number to 5 000, adding that police colleges would be able to take up to 7 000 recruits from next year. That number would be maintained until they closed the gap.
Murders in SA a were up to an all-time high of 20 336 people‚ 1 320 more than the previous year.
Head of crime statistics Major-General Norman Sekhukhune said “crimes of fear” were on the increase.
But Cele vowed to place the heads of his crack team of police bosses “on the chopping block” to ensure that police efforts in the next year yielded results. “On behalf of the government of South Africa, I’m putting all the police generals’ heads on the block.”
Cele addressed sexual violence against women by saying the police’s inadequate response to these crimes came down to training.
His new, hand-picked directorate of priority crimes head‚ Advocate Godfrey Lebeya‚ said they were in the process of rebuilding their capacity to fight corruption.
Asked about what the police were doing about cash-in-transit robberies, Cele again gave a glimpse of the decay he had inherited in security cluster.
“We have pooled together all our resources from different clusters. I don’t know why this wasn’t done before. We now have co-ordination between the different units‚” he said.
We have lost UN’s norm of policing