50% wanted criminals in jail

2003-09-08 18:03

Cape Town - South Africa is not being overwhelmed by crime as some would have it, and the police are winning the battle against the "evildoers", says Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula.

Briefing the media at Parliament on Monday, he rejected suggestions a "culture of crime" had taken hold in some areas, making them "ungovernable".

Although crime levels were still unacceptably high, he was confident the "good forces will triumph over criminality", Nqakula said.

Unlike in the past, the public were now "warming" to the police and coming forward with more and more information about criminals and their activities.

In the past seven months, the South African Police Service had issued warrants for the arrest of 286 000 wanted criminals.

"This is not a static figure. It rises and drops as warrants are being issued and arrests made."

Currently, police were concentrating on the search for 42 000 who "top our list of wanted criminals".

Of these, 19 541 had already either been arrested or traced to some prison.

"These people are known to the police and the net is closing on them," Nqakula said.

The capacity of the police had also improved considerably with the activation of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS), improving the investigative and detective capacity, and improving relationships between crime intelligence and the detectives.

The AFIS had enabled SAPS to process cases faster, more effectively and efficiently.

Police had traced 293 386 previous conviction reports this year compared to 163 369 last year.

A total of 3 481 more identifications of scene of crime fingerprints were made compared to last year.

The system also allowed police to expand services to include palm-print identification.

He added that the latest crime statistics and trends would be released together with the department's annual report before the end of this month.

The recruitment and training of more police officers was on track, and by the end of the 2005/06 financial year the SAPS hoped to have 152 000 members - about 124 000 of them "operational" and the remainder tasked with administration.

The SAPS intended to bring the current ratio of one officer to every 436 citizens down to one in 300.

Regarding the current protest action by, among others, police personnel demanding better salaries, Nqakula said he believed police deserved a "special dispensation" because of the nature of their work, which was entirely different to that of other public servants.

The issue was being discussed with the public service and administration department.

He also dismissed suggestions that police were issuing firearm licences on a "quota" basis.

There was no such quota, and no way would police "willy-nilly" reject licence applications.

The laid down procedures were strictly adhered to, he said.

In a statement later on Monday, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Douglas Gibson said Nqakula's media briefing was a "failure if it was intended to enlighten South Africa about the crime situation, and the government's response to it".

"He has still failed to release statistics showing how many crimes have been reported, how many arrests have been made and how many convictions have been obtained. This is unconscionable in a democracy."

The only statistics he did release evoked feelings of despair, Gibson said.

He repeated the DA's call for 150 000 properly trained and fully equipped police officers.

In a separate statement, African Christian Democratic Party spokesperson Steve Swart said citizens did not feel safe from crime in their homes, businesses, and on the roads, despite Nqakula's assurances that police are winning the battle against crime.

"Statistics from various reports show that despite government assurances to the contrary, crime in this country does pay," Swart said.

A recent report by the South African Law Reform Commission showed that nine out of ten violent criminals get away with their crime, while out of every 100 violent crimes reported to the police, perpetrators in only six cases had been convicted after more than two years.

"The most effective deterrent to crime is the sure knowledge that a criminal will be arrested, speedily tried and duly sentenced.

"In light of these statistics, clearly there is not a sufficient deterrent to crime," Swart said.

- SAPA