Issued by: Gauteng Provincial Government
PRESS RELEASE BY: THE GAUTENG SECRETARY FOR PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY: MR SIMON MKHABELA SIBEKO
As Secretary for Safety and Security in Gauteng, I note with concern press reports of escalating crime in Johannesburg and surrounding areas which has been captured by the media, for the past two days. The picture painted in the Beeld newspaper (29 May 1996) by Peet Bothma, is totally different from the one given by the Area Commissioner of Johannesburg, Commissioner Frans Malherbe at a meeting held 28 May 1996 consisting of all seven area commissioners for the province and the Provincial Commissioner whereby they were briefing us about crime situation in their respective areas.
The Secretariat is of the view that these reports from part of a campaign to drum support and to influence on the National Minister, Mr Sidney Mufumadi's budget speech in Parliament on 31 May 1996.
The said reports actually blames factors like staff shortages and demilitarization of the police for their inability to fight crime. This blaming will escalate and I believe that soon the whole concept of civilian oversight and factors like Affirmative Action in the police will be targeted.
I want to challenge people like Dr Eon Sonnekus from Unisa Criminology Department to be more responsible and realistic in their approach to the issues around crime and violence. I find it unacceptable that academics like himself who train and develop police members (who now battle with crime), would now come and equate demilitarization with incapability to fight crime.
Given South African history, I wish to impress upon people like Dr Sonnekus that it is only through the demilitarization of the police and their subsequent transformation into a true "Service" that we will have an improvement in service delivery and a consequent more successful combating of crime. I have no option to suggest that people like the said academics wishes this country to return to the old style of Policing. They suggest further that the humanistic approach to delivering a policing service and safety and security actually breeds crime.
The suggestion by this report that crimes like murder and rape will increase, actually suggests that the police are powerless to perform their duties in arresting and bringing to book perpetrators of crime, is nothing further from the truth.
The core essence of the National Crime Prevention Strategy is not being perceived in the said article.
Finally, I wish to point out that the police still have all the powers they had, and are in some instances better equipped (eg. 100 BMW's from Business, salary increament from 1st July) to deal with crime than in the past.