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The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes Minister Trevor Manuel’s comments to the Public Service Portfolio Committee regarding the police service. He said today that “we want to demilitarise the police [and] go back to the norms in the Constitution.”

We concur wholeheartedly with this view. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has consistently questioned the return of Apartheid-era ranks in the South African Police Service (SAPS). Like the now forgotten “shoot-to-kill” publicity stunt, efforts at ‘militarising' the police ranks have diverted attention away from the real challenges facing the police. As Minister Manuel said, military ranks have no positive impact on the rate of arrests and convictions.

The only thing that militarisation has achieved is an increase in violence and brutality by police.

Perhaps Minister Manuel’s comments will mark the end of this experiment with militarisation in our police services. Not only has militarisation made no real impact on crime, it has pitted the police against the very citizens they are supposed to serve and protect.

I will be putting questions to Minister Nthethwa to test whether he shares Minister Manuel’s view at the first available opportunity.