Issued by: The SA Police Service
PRETORIA: 1997-06-25
The cold-blooded murder of Reservist Constable Anthony Hall emphasises that SAPS and the community dare not regard Police Reservists as the "Forgotten Police officials".
The huge contribution of Police Reservists in combatting crime is too often overlooked - to the detriment of community/Police relations.
Committed and dedicated Police Reservists make an enormous contribution to fighting crime in South Africa - way beyond their numbers.
Reservists are the perfect mechanism for integrating practical and physical crime-fighting at grass-roots level between SAPS and the community.
In this way, self-defeating vigilantism can also be avoided.
It is thus difficult to find a better community example of commitment to fighting crime than Police Reservists, especially because they have other permanent jobs and receive no payment.
On behalf of SAPS, I therefore wish to pay special tribute to Constable Anthony Hall, who made the supreme sacrifice, and to his wounded reservist colleague, Sergeant Allen Winnik.
Their sacrifice will not be in vain because through their selfless devotion to duty they demonstrated that law-abiding South Africans have the necessary will to fight and beat crime.
Their example will therefore inspire all crime-fighters - both in SAPS and the community - to greater efforts to root out the deep-seated evil of crime from our society.
I must also thank permanent SAPS members for continually placing themselves in the line of fire against criminals and for their daily sacrifices in performing their duties.