Cops will be ‘rough but legal’

New Police Minister Fikile Mbalula, pictured, says the Saps are going to be “rough”, but will act within the law, in their approach to fighting crime.

He was in Pretoria where he met members of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) and the South African Policing Union (Sapu).

Earlier this week, at his welcome parade at the SA Police Service College in Pretoria West, Mbalula pleaded with officers to act “mercilessly towards criminals and to fight fire with fire”.

Mbalula said he was looking forward to having a good working relationship with Ipid and Sapu.

The minister thanked Ipid and Sapu for welcoming him with open arms and also sharing with him some of the issues which would be discussed at their next meeting.

“If we say all hands on deck, it is not going to be business as usual, it’s going to be business unusual,” he said.

Mbalula said he wanted the community to participate in the fight against crime.

He wanted to build partnerships with communities in the fight against crime because the police would not do it alone.

“We’ve been in office for less than five days,” he said.

“We interact with everybody and we got a very detailed account from the top management of the work done by the police, complaints and the state of crime in South Africa.

“We are going to be rough but we are going to be legal.”

He also added that the police force needed to be protected and no element of recklessness would be tolerated.

“We must appreciate the work that honest and dedicated policemen are doing.”

Mbalula said the work of the police must not be overshadowed by a few rotten apples.

Head of Ipid Robert McBride and Sapu president Mpho Kwinika said they welcomed the minister and were ready to start working with him.

If we say all hands on deck, it is not going to be business as usual, it’s going to be business unusual. Fikile Mbalula Minister of police