MUFAMADI ON KILLINGS OF MEMBERS OF THE SA POLICE

Issued by: Ministry of Safety and Security

19 MAY 1999.

The killings and attacks on members of the South African Police Service is a matter of serious concern to the government, the public, and of course our police members themselves.

Police members form the protective shield between the law-abiding citizenry and the criminals. Needless to say, attacks on law enforcement officers impact negatively on our crime-fighting efforts.

So far this year, up until 18 May 1999, a total of 91 police members have been murdered. Of these 37 were murdered whilst on duty and the rest (54) were murdered whilst off-duty.

In most of the above cases, the instrument used to inflict the fatalities was a firearm.

It is against this background that after consultation with police management and representative trade unions, I have decided to take the following steps to stop the killings of our policemen and women:

• In the short term the following actions have been decided upon:
• A reward of R250 000 will be offered to any member of the public who furnishes the police with information which leads to the arrest and conviction of a person or persons responsible for the murder of a policeman or woman. This is a standing offer for all instances in which police members are murdered.
• We will continue to appeal to the community to assist the police with information and intelligence regarding the protection of our police members. The incentive of a reward should be interpreted as a passionate plea to the community to rid our society of "cop killers".

The medium term approach entails the establishment of a multi-disciplinary committee as a matter of urgency to review and analyse the current situation and to make recommendations which will enhance a safer working environment and best operational practices for members o the SAPS. The committee will include academics, representatives of the three unions, namely, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru, National Police and Public Civil Rights Union (Napcru), and the South African Police Union (Sapu), as well as specialist members of the SAPS, the Department of Justice and the National Intelligence Agency.

Due to the urgent nature of the problem we have, the Committee wil have between one and two weeks to conduct its work and will use similar methods of approach as the Rural Safety Task Team which is looking at farm killings.

The committee will, amongst other things, draw together all existing information and research on police killings, study case dockets, look at cases before the courts, evaluate and determine the weaknesses in training and instructional information, legislation and so forth.

It is our fervent hope that the committee's recommendations put us in a position to act against those who kill police officers.