Our police need help

THERE’S A LITTLE girl lying in hospital, fighting for her life. It’s doubtful if she knows that she doesn’t have a family any more. If she does pull through this will be the next battle for her to fight. Khumo Motaung was orphaned on New Year’s Eve when her father, Lucas, a Pretoria police constable opened fire on her, her brother Bokamoso, and their mom Phindile, before turning the gun on himself.

Nobody knows why he flew into a rage with his wife. Nobody knows why he went from looking forward to spending New Year with his family after having to work on Christmas, to trying to wipe them all out.

All that we do know is that Lucas Motaung is not an isolated case.

Our police force is poorly paid, over stretched and often under-resourced and insufficiently trained. On top of this, they face criminals who are well rewarded, highly motivated and accordingly quite brazen.

The lot of a police officer is one of long hours, often incredible personal danger compounded by the tedious mind numbing frustration of trying to secure the conviction of suspects they have arrested through a justice system in which the odds are often stacked against them.

It’s a recipe for disaster in any environment, but in one like our police force where there is an overarching and ineradicable culture of machismo it becomes a toxic pressure cooker with all too obvious consequences.

There are mechanisms for our over stressed police officers, but they are discouraged from using them for fear of being seen as weak or flawed. Nothing could be further than the truth. We need to get our officers to start making use of the counselling services that exist, but we also have to start paying them better and respecting them for the incredible job that they do as the thin blue line between us and anarchy.

Then and only then can we done this vicious cycle around – and stop having to bury the innocents caught in this cross fire of hatred, loathing and hopelessness.