Marianne Merten
National Police Commissioner Jackie Selebi is awaiting the outcome of a Constitutional Court hearing before setting detailed guidelines on how officers may use their firearms under the new Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which restricts lethal force in arresting fleeing suspects.
The amended section which replaced an apartheid law giving police almost carte blanche to shoot at suspects has been a point of contention for at least four years.
Although Parliament passed the legislation in 1998, the section remains in abeyance. Initially its implementation was suspended until early this year. It was again withdrawn at the last minute for further consultation after Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete expressed his unhappiness that police officers would be endangered.
The Constitutional Court in November last year heard legal argument in a case where a homeowner shot dead a burglar while trying to effect a citizen’s arrest. Although the case relates only indirectly to the police, Selebi and Tshwete are cited as intervening parties.
Interviewed this week, Selebi said: “I’m the last one arguing ‘shoot for the sake of shooting’. But there are issues that need clarity. When the men go out on the streets, I can’t give them an encyclopaedia.”
Selebi said he expected the court to provide guidance on what was expected of police officers when a suspect was fleeing. A key concern was that 165 police officers were killed last year while trying to arrest suspects.
He maintained policemen were already informed about the Act, but now needed detailed guidelines on what to do when. Tshwete, answering a parliamentary question, also said there had been no attempt to “reorientate” police officers on the ground.