The Congress of the People Youth Movement has noted, with grave concern, the shooting-to-death of Olga Kekana (29) by members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) flying squad at the close of this past weekend.

Our concerns include amongst others:

1. what, on the face of it, appears to be a fundamental lack of judgement on the part of the police officers concerned. The flying squad is often better equipped with better and faster vehicles than the Toyota conquest in which Olga Kekana was a passenger.

We therefore fail to understand why the police could not have given chase to the vehicle without shooting at its occupants. It is also difficult to understand why, if the intention was to apprehend - not kill the suspects - the police did not shoot at vehicle's tires, thereby disable its movement forward without taking the life of a human being.

1. the militarisation of the SAPS exemplified by "shoot to kill" rhetoric of the Minister and Deputy Minister and the new National Police Commissioner.

It is clear that this section of the police leadership favours shooting to kill as the most appropriate and perhaps the only available tool for the police in dealing with crime and suspected criminals. South Africa is in danger of returning to the trigger happy days of the Adrian Vlok-led South African Police Force.

Now, as was the case then, the militarisation of the police service will not positively impact on crime. Instead, it is a vindictive and cynical exercise aimed at manipulating victims of crime into the belief that the solution lies in an eye for an eye and not addressing crime-producing conditions.

The implications for any police service which must rely on the people to defeat crime are immense. In short, it will further erode the confidence which the police have gained since the years of democracy through measures taken to demilitarise the service.

1. the militarisation of the police and its implications a democratic culture. This is a fundamental affront on and departure from one of the core principles of post apartheid democratic South Africa in which policing was always a non-militarised structure and carried out its work primarily through non-violent means. All South Africans must ask: what next?

1. Olga Kekana is therefore a victim of the affront on and departure from democratic policing methods.

1. Our condolences: The Congress of the People Youth Movement conveys our sincere and heartfelt condolences to the family of Olga Kekana, a youth cut in the morning of her life. We also wish her injured friends and colleagues a speedy recovery.