The police ordered into the Jeppestown incident to face 20 armed murderers were used as cannon fodder, the official opposition Democratic Alliance said on Friday.
This follows a South African Cabinet statement sending condolences to the families of police personnel killed at Jeppestown. Four members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) lost their lives and eight others were shot dead in an ambush by robbers. The incident occurred last weekend after a robbery at a supermarket.
Meanwhile, DA safety spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said: ”The bravery of our police officers aside, the Jeppestown massacre looks like a huge operational failure in that the cops were ordered into a situation where they were faced with 20 armed murderers and used as cannon fodder.
”Why was a much larger force not used? Surely there was something wrong with the police intelligence and the operational methods. Instead of sending in police officers to be slaughtered, the whole operation could have, and should have, been better handled. Statements by police publicists that the operation was ‘conducted by the book’ did not impress.
”Surely ‘the book’ does not require people to be slaughtered. Reinforcement might have made a huge difference.”
Jankielsohn charged that the truth about ANC ministers and officials was that ”they are now trying to grab headlines to cover their own confusion, embarrassment and culpability”.
The MP said that for years, his party had been calling for dramatic increases in police resources. The government is still ”pitifully short” of its stated target of putting 150 000 active police officers on the streets.
”The Gauteng SAPS is forced to operate with half of the crime-fighting personnel it needs to operate optimally.”
In a statement on Thursday — following a regular Cabinet meeting on Wednesday in Pretoria — the Cabinet said that the South African government ”would like to re-affirm its appreciation of the role of the SAPS in fighting crime and to emphasise the message that crime should not and does not pay”.
”Cabinet expressed its empathy and condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of the fallen members of the SAPS and called on all South Africans to unite against crime,” the government statement said. — I-Net Bridge