Legislation empowering police to respond more forcefully to dangerous criminals is close to finalisation, Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa said on Tuesday.
Consultation between Mthethwa and Justice Minister Jeff Radebe on the amendment to section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act had been completed.
”We have gone through the processes, it now has to be presented to Parliament,” Mthethwa told the National Press Club in Pretoria.
”We must hasten to say that trigger-happy members of the police must not think that this is a licence to kill. It is a measure aimed specifically at serious violent crimes and dangerous criminals.”
He said while there was no policy of shoot to kill, ”we are saying that there is no way … we will ask the police, when faced with dangerous criminals, to flaunt to them some nice documentation we have, our Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and so on.”
Police National Commissioner Bheki Cele said there was ”no confusion” among his policemen that the new legislation was a call to be trigger-happy.
He, however, added that ”the only language R5s understand is an R5”, he said, referring to heavily armed criminals.
He quipped that ”these guys carry R5s and when they squeeze [the trigger] it does not produce photos”.
Mthethwa said the amendment to section 49 was meant ”to zoom in” and take specific measures against a specific crime.
”We know the gangs roaming our streets and know the kind of misery and pain they cause in our society. These criminals sit and plan with military precision. These are our targets.”
Mthethwa said Monday’s shooting of six men at a foiled cash-in-transit heist in Kameeldrift outside Pretoria was not a ”random and indiscriminate police shooting”.
He said the police had received a warning that a cash van would be attacked and responded accordingly. The perpetrators were armed with automatic weapons, he said.
”The police intervened after the suspects opened fire … and their actions not only secured their lives but also the lives of the security personal accompanying the vehicle,” Mthethwa said.
Better-trained personnel
Cele also told the National Press Club that South Africans will soon be making crime statements to paralegals and legal professionals when they enter one of the country’s 1 116 police stations.
”The next recruitment lot will be legals and paralegals to take statements … so that police can be in the field and to ensure that these statements stand in court,” Cele said.
A process of ”professionalising” the police force was being phased in. The men in blue would be recruiting science graduates into their ranks to run forensic labs and machines.
”We need key aids [charted accountants], we need IT gurus … we are phasing in that kind of quality,” the commissioner said.
This was not a restructuring of the police service, but rather an attempt to bring in more professional and better-trained personnel.
Mthethwa said this formed part of efforts to improve the police’s performance. He said certain units previously disbanded may be reintroduced.
”The closure of these units had led to significant debate regarding the need for certain types of crime to be addressed by people with specialised knowledge and experience.”
This could only be acquired through ”direct engagement” in these areas.
”The ministry is currently considering the reintroduction of some of these specialised units, in particular the child-protection unit and sexual-offences unit.
”[We] must strengthen measures aimed at fighting the spectre of violence against women and children.”
A new head had been appointed to lead the police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate. Mthethwa said the ministry was in the process of finalising legislation to improve the directorate’s performance.
A new secretary of police had also been appointed. The secretariat of police had been enhanced and restructured to provide better civilian and ministerial oversight of the police, Mthethwa said. — Sapa