Rustenburg – The Congress of South African Trade Union (Cosatu) in the North West has called for government action to end attacks and murders of police officers, provincial secretary Solly Phetoe said on Tuesday.
Phetoe said: “We call our provincial and national government to act and develop strategies that will include involvement of all stake holders to fight against” the killing of police officers.
“We call our government in general and the justice system to protect the public, which include men and women in blue uniform, who are at the coalface of fighting thuggery,” said Phetoe.
“We strongly condemn the continuation of the police killings and if, left without societal response to condemn such heinous acts, may destroy the social fabric of our society.”
The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has called for a lunchtime picketing at all police station country wide on Wednesday against the killing of police officers.
More than 50 police officers have been killed since the beginning of this year.
In North West Constable John Seun Mokotedi, 35, was the first policeman to be killed in the province. He was gunned down when armed gunmen fired at him at shopping mall in Bapong near Brits on November 4.
The gunmen had just robbed a clothing shop in the mall before they saw Constable Mokotedi in a marked police van. He was shot in the head and died at the scene.
An off duty, warrant officer attached to the Assen police station was shot and wounded on Saturday in Letlhabile near Brits. He died in hospital on Monday.
North West police spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko said the warrant officer was hijacked.
“We do not know whether he was attacked because he is a policeman,” he said.
In an attempt to heighten awareness of the scourge of police killings and demand for action from government in defence of police officer, Popcru also resolved to call on its members to refuse to work in risky situation alone and to withdraw their services each day a member gets killed.
Phetoe said no one has the right to kill anyone and who conduct improper acts must face the music.
“Justice must be seen to take its course in such circumstances.”
He called on all Cosatu affiliates and community members to support the picketing starting on Wednesday in all the police stations in the North West.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.