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'We need to understand crime'
18/07/2007 22:13 - (SA)
Thapelo Sakoana
Pretoria - Government says there is a need to increase the public's understanding of circumstances leading to the increase in certain categories of crime, as revealed in the recently published crime statistics.
Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said the public discourse on crime trends has been narrowed down to the increase of 2.4% in murder and 4.6% in aggravated robbery, reported BuaNews, the government's news agency.
Addressing a meeting he held in Pretoria on Tuesday with Community Policing Forums (CPFs) to unpack the 2006 statistics, Nqakula said their causes needed to be further explained to citizens.
"There have been lots of comments regarding the increases in these two categories but there is no explanation on what caused such increases," said Nqakula.
The killing of police officers
The fact that the increases were as a result of the spike of violent crime between April and June last year had not been emphasised, he explained, adding: "Another critical factor that was overlooked was that this spike took place in the wake of the security strike.
"(The spike) took place because the people who guard banks and some residential places were not at work, and analysts are not talking about this," said Nqakula.
The minister further explained that the spike fell after he and the provincial MECs for Safety met to discuss concerns about incidents involving the killing of police officers in some instances.
As a result of the meeting with the MECs and top management in the South African Police Service (SAPS), the minister said more than 9 000 criminals were arrested between July and December last year.
Nqakula said the CPFs had an important role to play in informing the public in their areas about the real crime trends in the country and exploring mechanisms to deal with incidents of criminality whenever they emerged.
Establish the most prevalent types of crime
There was also a need, he said, to change the mindsets of communities regarding the manner in which social crime would be fought.
Communities must understand they will be able to fight social crime better when they know each other; especially in households were there is no police presence.
There should be regular meetings in different police precincts countrywide, suggested Nqakula, to establish the most prevalent types of crime in particular areas and discuss how such incidents could be dealt with.
"You must be asking yourself there is this incident of murder, how did it happen and how can we prevent such incidents in the future. The trends in social crime will only change if people get involved," Nqakula said.
He urged the Secretariat for Safety and Security as well as the chairpersons of CPFs in all provinces to draw a detailed programme to reach out to the people countrywide.
With about 108 police officers having lost their lives during the 2006/07 financial year and 95 in the previous period, Nqakula called on police officers to track down the criminals who killed their colleagues.
Deployment of experienced police officers
"If a station commander has a complement of 20 police officers and one of them is killed by a criminal, I want the remaining ones to look for the murderer. I want us to send a clear message that no one will kill a member of the SAPS and get away with it.
"If you 'police officers' reasonably believe that your life is in danger, the law says you are allowed to use maximum force," he said.
The national chairperson of the CPFs, Mandla Mphuthi, said they would implement the proposals that the minister made in order to input a general and real understanding of the crime situation in South Africa.
"The provincial MECs for safety have been supportive throughout and we hope they will continue to do so," he said.
Mr Mphuthi said they welcomed the restructuring process in the SAPS, which would allow for more deployment of experienced police officers to the police stations.
"The CPFs want an opportunity to influence the utilisation of these resources," Nqakula said.
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