Cops losing the war on crime and grime

Hawks bombshell leaves police portfolio committee chair aghast

ASENIOR police official has admitted they are losing the war on crime. This comes months after President Jacob Zuma announced the establishment of two specialised units within the Hawks to deal with drugs and illegal guns in the Western Cape and other provinces.

Head of analysis for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Major-General Peter Arendse told MPs at a police committee meeting that no arrests, convictions or confiscations of illegal firearms were made by the units in the Western Cape.

Chairperson of the portfolio committee on police Francois Beukman was aghast at the statement and said it was unacceptable no results were yielded.

“Our dilemma with that statement is we expect them to come with solutions. Crime is a multifaceted problem, and it needs a multipronged approach to deal with the circulation of illegal firearms.”

Beukman said there was a spike in serious crime in the Western Cape and Mpumalanga. “We can never accept that crime can win. If there is a crime problem in a certain field then there must be strategies. I feel that was missing from the presentation and we feel it’s the important thing to deal with it holistically.”

Beukman said staffing issues were mentioned as part of the reason but believed there were men and women that could do the job.

“In Western Cape we see minors that are killed with illegal guns and that means there is a large gun-running issue. The SAPS have over 193 000 members and there are a lot of talented people that can deal with it. The acting head must come to the committee and indicate what steps they are taking and get resources and (an) action plan to deal with it.”

Senior crime and justice programme researcher at the Institute for Security Studies Johan Burger said when looking at the numbers, Arendse was right and police were losing the fight against crime. Burger said there has been a dramatic upsurge in various crimes.

“We are moving in the wrong direction and by admitting this. Arendse is correct and he was at least honest, but what are they doing about it? They know and acknowledge a serious crime problem, why is it so difficult to fix it?”

Burger said the solution was appointing a capable and reliable commissioner. “The police appoint one acting head after the other and crime intelligence in the past few years has become almost ineffective. We have seen a lot of instability in appointments.”

Hawks spokesperson Brigadier Mulaudzi Hangwani said it was evident there were shortfalls in service delivery that required a rethink in policing strategies.