Residents want more police after slayings
Frightened Engcobo residents and business owners have called on the government to deploy more police officers to fight crime in their town after six police officers and a soldier were shot dead in the early hours of Wednesday.
Frightened Engcobo residents and business owners have called on the government to deploy more police officers to fight crime in their town‚ after six police officers and a soldier were gunned down in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A gang of robbers stormed into the Engcobo police station and shot six officers before stealing firearms.
A man believed to be a member of the South African National Defence Force‚ who reportedly heard shots and went to investigate‚ was also shot and killed.
Eastern Cape police spokesperson Captain Khaya Tonjeni said the gunmen had stolen weapons in the attack.
The situation remained tense in Engcobo and some of the businesses in the area were unable to operate.
High Road, where the police station is located, was cordoned off so that police could investigate the murder of the five policemen and retired soldier.
The Engcobo Pharmacy‚ situated opposite the police station‚ opened only at 11am, as the main road had been closed off since the early hours of Wednesday morning.
Crime statistics for the area showed 22 robberies were recorded between April 2016 and March 2017‚ up from 12 incidents in the previous year.
The area also recorded 17 robberies at nonresidential premises from April 2016 to March 2017‚ a decrease from the 24 robberies recorded between April 2015 and March 2016.
The South African Policing Union (Sapu) said on Wednesday that it wanted Police Minister Fikile Mbalula to convene a national summit on police killings.
“The brutal and merciless killings of six police officials in Engcobo in the Eastern Cape makes this call for a national summit an extremely urgent matter‚” Sapu general secretary Oscar Skommere said.
Skommere took a stab at Mbalula’s “rhetorical statements”, which he said “do not yield the desired results”.
“Harsh words of condemnation only will not curb the continued killings of our members‚” Skommere said.
“If police officials are butchered like this in a police station‚ how safe are our people in the streets?”
He criticised the lack of security at police stations. “This Engcobo police station does not even have a gate. In most police stations there are no metal detectors‚ no CCTV cameras.”
Sapu welcomed an initiative by the police and the Hawks to establish a task team to investigate the murders‚ but believes it is “not good enough”.
The ANC leadership in the province said the incident exposed the lack of security for society as a whole.
ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukaitobi said an intervention by the police’s national office was essential.
“We condemn the continued killing of members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) — men and women in uniform who risk their lives daily to ensure the safety of all South African citizens‚” she said.
“We also call upon the police management across the country to ensure that our police officers are properly armed and wellresourced to defend themselves and innocent citizens.”
National police commissioner General Khehla Sithole condemned the killings‚ and gave an assurance that the team of SAPS and Hawks officers deployed to hunt the killers would make progress.
“I am appalled and deeply saddened by the cold and callous attack on our colleagues this morning‚” Sithole said.