OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Friday 7.30pm.
POLICE top management came under fire on Friday for failing to establish a dedicated unit to probe the killing of police members.
South African Police Union chairman Captain Msebenzi Sibisi said nothing had come of earlier demands for such a unit to be established. Sibisi was speaking at a memorial service for two policemen shot dead earlier in the week.
The chairman of the Soweto community policing area board, Joseph Banda, also called for the establishment of a dedicated team to probe police killings. “There is a special unit looking after hijackings, but none for police killings,” he said.
He was loudly applauded when he called on the police to hunt down the killers and, if possible, to kill them.
Criminals are encouraged to target police due to the lack of a specialised unit, according to Sibisi. The Criminal Procedure Act also came under fire for putting policemen’s lives in danger. The union chairman noted provisions that call for police to withhold fire until fired upon as particularly dangerous.
The mayor of Greater Johannesburg, Isaac Mogase, told mourners his heart was bleeding at the constant killing of policemen. As a former president of the Soweto Civic Association he had been detained for encouraging the establishment of street and block committees, Mogase said. These committees now need to be re-established as the only way of stopping the criminals, he said.