The recent spate of violent criminal attacks has raised South Africa’s security threat profile, the South African Chamber of Business (Sacob) said on Tuesday.
”They are concerns that pervade both business and public sentiment, and reflect the low level of public confidence in the criminal justice system,” Sacob said in a media statement.
The chamber was referring to last Sunday’s attack in which four police officers died in a fierce gun battle in Jeppestown.
The four police officers’ murder brought to 19 the tally of police deaths in Gauteng since the start of the year. There were 23 police killed [in Gauteng] in the whole of 2005.
On May 21, the South African Police Service (SAPS) remembered 91 police officials killed last year — 33 of them murdered while on duty and 58 off duty — during its annual commemoration service at the SAPS memorial at the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
In 2004, 107 police were murdered, 40 while on duty and 67 off duty.
At the time, police put the decrease down to an increase in street survival and tactical policing courses, greater community involvement in the battle against crime and stiffer sentences imposed by the courts.
The police have refused to reveal exactly how many police deaths there have been throughout the country since the start of this year, citing the moratorium on police statistics.
However, there are believed to have been at least 13 deaths in KwaZulu-Natal — four of on-duty police and nine off duty. — Sapa