South Africa’s deputy security minister Susan Shabangu on Sunday repeated her controversial demand that police respond forcefully to attacks to earn the public’s trust.
”Police will have to survive at all times because they have got a responsibility of protecting the communities” and themselves, she said at a commemoration service in Pretoria for more than 100 policemen killed between April 2007 and March 2008.
”If they cannot protect themselves, communities will lose confidence in the South African Police Service,” she told SAfm.
The minister had previously called for police to ”kill the bastards” who attacked them, which drew shock and anger.
”You must kill the bastards if they threaten you or your community,” Shabangu told a crime rally in Pretoria in April to a standing ovation.
”Your responsibility is to serve and protect,” she said. ”I want no warning shots. You have one shot, and it must be a kill shot.”
The Democratic Alliance called for Shabangu to be fired, while the chairperson of the Human Rights Commission said he was ”taken aback” by her comments.
South Africa has about 9 000 murders and nearly 7 000 robberies a year, according to official figures. – Sapa