The Pan African Parliament (PAP) on Friday called on the South African government to improve the protection of its officials after an MP was robbed in Midrand on Wednesday.
A new MP for Mauritania, Diye Ba, was held at gunpoint on arriving at the Town Lodge in Midrand, from the airport, PAP spokesperson Khalid Abdu Dahab said.
The robbers took all her possessions and emptied the hotel’s till, he said.
Similar attacks were happening all the time and were ”causing an alarm”, PAP president Gertrude Mongella said at a briefing after the close of the PAP’s seventh ordinary session.
”We have already notified the government of this and they are working on it,” she said, adding that the PAP would monitor the progress.
It was thought this was a crime issue rather than criminals targeting PAP officials.
However, the PAP hoped the government would make good on its promise to increase efforts to protect PAP officials, said Mongella.
She was sure the people of South Africa had experienced crime and that they had to know how to protect themselves.
”It is more frightening when you come as a guest … They feel they are victims of circumstances,” she said.
During the PAP’s sixth ordinary session in November last year, two Ugandan MPs and a member of their support staff were made to lie on the ground by gunmen who walked into the lobby and restaurant of the United Hotel, in Midrand, said Dahab.
A member of the PAP staff was robbed by thugs who attacked her while she was entering the PIN number on her alarm when she arrived home from the airport.
In another incident, an official with a car so new it had not yet been insured, was hijacked, he said.
Mongella said the PAP’s security was ”in the hands of the host country”.
”So if there are any insecurities, we have to report to the government and the government takes action through the normal channels of dealing with the crime,” she said.
”We wish the government will become more vigilant on these criminals.”
She said the crime rate in South Africa was high because of the ”destabilising phenomena” prevalent during its emergence from apartheid.
”People have been at war.”
While she was sure the government would put in measures to stamp out crime, Mongella said it would also be necessary for the public to act.
”These criminals live with us. So if the government is not helped to expose criminals, the government can never manage,” she said.
At the same time, the government had to use the public discreetly, and not expose the sources of its information. — Sapa