Huge boost for war on crime
Mbalula stresses politicking not in interest of citizens
POLICE Minister Fikile Mbalula has admonished police officers who involved themselves in party politics, saying that if they combined policing with politicking they would not be serving the citizens of South Africa faithfully.
Addressing hundreds of people gathered for the official opening of a new state-of-the-art multimillionrand police station in Lusikisiki on Saturday, Mbalula said police should up their game when it came to fighting crime and ensuring the safety and security of people.
“The SAPS is purely for policing, it is not a political party. Those who have ambitions and are interested in becoming politicians must resign from the police service and join politics. You cannot have both, that is a recipe for disaster,” said Mbalula.
“I also don’t want police who don’t have a backbone. Police take an oath to not be involved in party politics, but we now have police members who do both – being police members and politicians simultaneously.”
He said the Eastern Cape had the highest number of police involved in politics and this should be stopped.
He said that at the recent ANC provincial conference people were beaten and injured, but the culprits were not arrested because police members had political interests.
“Those people are denting the ANC’s image. They were supposed to have been then,” he said.
He said police should not “smile” with the municipal officials and government officials stealing state money. “I cannot have a political discussion with thieves and criminals. Arrest those b*****ds. I don’t like thieves. Police must not be friends with criminals,” said Mbalula.
He said despite those who are corrupt, there were thousands of police committed to fighting crime arrested there and however, he worried that they were not being adequately rewarded for this.
“There are those who risk their lives yet at the end of the day they are not rewarded for their courageous work with promotion. Some police members have been constables for more than 15 years despite their diligence and commitment to the service. What do you call this? We are discouraging committed SAPS members. Deserving police members must be promoted,” said the police minister.
Lusikisiki has become a hotbed of crime with a high number of business robberies, murders, rapes, and hijackings. To fight these crimes, Mbalula handed over the new police station as well as eight new police vehicles and introduced a specialised policing unit which includes Public Order Policing (POP) and a tactical response team as well as a K9 (dog) unit.