/ 9 January 2009

Sapu calls for tougher law on cop killers

Tougher legislation to deal with ruthless police killers would be a positive step, the South African Police Union said on Friday.

Tougher legislation to deal with ruthless police killers would be a positive step, the South African Police Union (Sapu) said on Friday.

The union said it commended the African National Congress for the proposed legislation which would deal more harshly with police killers.

”The proposed law is long overdue. It is also a positive step that will come as a relief to thousands of our members who are working under fear of being killed on a daily basis,” said Sapu in a statement.

It said South Africa was an abnormal society that butchered its own police officers.

”As SAPU we have conducted various probes into police killings worldwide, it came as a total shock to us that there is no country in the world that police are killed at an alarmingly high rate as in South Africa,” said the union.

Sapu called on Safety and Security Minister Nathi Mthethwa to urgently convene a national summit to find ways to stop police killings.

It also called on the Justice Ministry to introduce legislation that would make it tougher for convicted police killers to get parole.

”They must rot in jail for the rest of their lives. We fully agree with the proposal that police killings must be treated as treason because to kill a police officer is actually a fight against the state,” said Sapu.

Life sentence handed down

Meanwhile, two men who killed a policeman in 2006 were on Friday sentenced to life in prison by the Johannesburg High Court, police said.

Captain William Mpondo said Muzi Ngubane (26) and Frans Mathebula (30) of Zamimpilo informal settlement near Langlaagte were arrested on June 5 2006 following a shoot-out with Inspector Phillip Msimango and a colleague.

”Inspector Msimango and a colleague stationed at Langlaagte police station had stopped the two suspicious men and attempted to search them,” said Mpondo.

”The suspects shot at the police. Msimango died on the scene.”

Ngubane and Mathebula were convicted of murder, attempted murder and possession of an unlicensed firearm. – Sapa