Zuma, Mbalula and Malema support tough new law
By BRENDAN BOYLE
Take cover. The government is racing to enact the promised shoot-to-kill law – and it will probably apply to civilians making a citizen's arrest as well as to police, as a government minister warned yesterday: "Innocent people are going to die."
President Jacob Zuma acknowledged for the first time in Parliament that South Africa has the most violent crime in the world and said it was time to fight back.
"The point that I have been making is that when criminals take out their guns, they are not taking it to warn, they are taking it out to kill," he said.
Hours earlier, Fikile Mbalula, the deputy minister of police, told reporters in Cape Town that civilians would inevitably be killed as police take the battle against crime to the streets.
"In the course of any duty the innocent will be victimised," he said. "In this particular situation, where you are caught in combat with criminals, innocent people are going to die – not deliberately, but in the exchange of fire. They are going to be caught on the wrong side – not deliberately, but unavoidably."
Atlegang Aphane, 3, was the most recent victim of the new hard line when he was shot and killed by a policeman who claims he mistook a pipe the child was holding for a gun. No pipe was found.
Mbalula said there were always unintended victims of any war, but the police could not back off in the fight against violent criminals.
"Yes, shoot the bastards … incorrigible bastards," he said.
Mbalula's views were supported by ANC Youth League president Julius Malema who, in a separate interview, told The Times that the "shoot to kill" approach was "perfect" and blamed the recent public outcry over trigger-happy policemen on the media. "That's very perfect. Shoot to kill – that's what we need. Seven down in Polokwane. There are not so many. They [the shootings] are highly covered recently because you want to prove shoot to kill wrong."
But David Bruce, senior researcher at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said such statements reinforced "our concerns that confusing and inflammatory rhetoric from senior politicians is increasing the likelihood" that the police "will engage in the reckless use of force".
"The deputy minister is incorrect in saying that the killings are unavoidable. Professional police agencies prevail on their members to take the utmost care to avoid the loss of life of innocent people.
"It is also not true that the statements by politicians have no impact on the way in which police behave. The tone which is set by political leaders has a direct impact on the approach which police officers employ in relation to their use of force," Bruce said.
Answering questions in Parliament, Zuma also defended the new, hard-line approach on crime.
While insisting that South Africa's crime rate was not unusually high, he offered the first concession by any government leader that it was the most violent in the world.
"The crime in South Africa is different from other countries, who have probably, in terms of quantity, the same crime. It's different from the point of view that this one is violent in South Africa – more violent than in any other part of the world," he said.
"Criminals here act differently. If they break into somebody's house in other countries, they steal and run away. Here they wait for the person to come and demand keys – where is the safe and everything – and they kill and they have been killing people. That is why the crime is characterised as violent."
Zuma said Section 49 of the current Criminal Procedure Act applied as much to a citizen's arrest as it does to police and the proposed amendment would be likely also to apply to citizens.
He said the amendment, which would make it easier for police to shoot in a confrontation with a suspected criminal, was close to completion, but he declined to explain its provisions. He said, however, it was being crafted in compliance with the Constitution.
But those who have fallen victim to the police's new approach to the fight against crime are not convinced. Last month, Olga Kekana, 30, was killed when police opened fire on the car in which she was travelling, after they incorrectly believed the car had been hijacked.
Her father Frans Makgotla said: "This is just an excuse for their trigger-happy ways … my daughter was killed for nothing." -Additional reporting: Zandile Mbabela, Lauren Cohen and Judy Lelliott
In Times Live.
CSVR is a multi-disciplinary institute that seeks to understand and prevent violence, heal its effects and build sustainable peace at the community, national and regional levels.
