Johannesburg - Was the shooting of Khulekani Mpanza just the tip of the iceberg in South Africa’s open gunbattles between criminals and police?
In the week since the video showing the shooting of Mpanza in Krugersdorp surfaced, at least three more graphic videos showing shootouts between the police and criminals have been circulated on social media platforms.
In two of the videos, criminals armed with large-calibre weapons are shown shooting and killing the police. It’s clear from the images that the men in blue don’t stand a chance.
In a video that surfaced on Thursday, a man is captured while shooting and killing a police officer in Brits, North West, on Wednesday.
Two police officers were on a regular patrol when they came across men who had just pulled off a robbery at an Edgars store in the town, according to police spokesman Captain Paul Ramaloko.
He said the officers weren’t aware of the robbery.
In the video, a police van is shown as it drives and parks perpendicularly to a white car. The driver of the police van comes out and approaches the white car. At that point, the officer is shot at and falls to the ground almost immediately.
The criminals then drive over his body. His colleague drives off, while members of the public run towards the murdered officer.
In another video that also emerged this week, a police officer is shown as he comes under attack from a gang of criminals in July.
The gang run towards a police van with what look like AK47s in their hands. They start shooting at the police officer, who gets out of the van and seeks refuge behind the van in a bid to escape. But he is caught and shot, dropping to the ground almost immediately.
But it’s not just the police who are coming under fire. In a third video, an unarmed man is shot at by police in Thokoza Park, Soweto. Sphiwe Zikalala said he was walking home when he was surrounded by police officers and shot several times in the arm.
At the time, the police were chasing hijackers, according to police spokeswoman Colonel Noxolo Kweza.
Each time a video is posted on social media platforms since Mpanza’s shooting surfaced, the public have expressed opposing views on the victims and perpetrators. Since Mpanza’s shooting, some have expressed anger at the criminals and the way police are being portrayed.
Using the hashtag #criminalsmustfall, crime-fighting groups on Facebook have been posting the videos of police being shot at.
“How the police are slaughtered daily! But criminals have more rights,” said Facebook group Intelligence Bureau SA, where the Brits video clip was posted.
WARNING: GRAPHIC FOOTAGE
SAPS MEMBER EXECUTED BY CRIMINALS IN BRITS YESTERDAY!!! LET'S SEE IF MAINSTREAM MEDIA CALL THIS WHAT IT IS AND GIVE THIS MEMBER FRONT PAGE LIKE THEY HAVE BEEN GIVING TO CRIMINALS!! SAD THAT THESE CRIMINALS ARE ENJOYING LIFE WHILST OUR SAPS MEMBERS ARE NOW FIGHTING FOR THEIR FREEDOM FOR SHOOTING AN ARMED SUSPECT WHO HAD JUST DISCHARGED 8 ROUNDS INTO A SAPS VEHICLE..WARNING GRAPHIC FOOTAGE!!
Posted by Intelligence Bureau SA on Wednesday, November 4, 2015
“The police are in a very difficult situation. They are too scared to shoot before the criminals shoot first. So he who shoots second is dead. Which kind of police officer would you rather be? A dead one or a live one. You be the judge,” crime fighting organisation eBlockwatch founder André Snyman said.
Police spokesman Lieutenant- General Solomon Makgale said since the beginning of the year, 73 police officers had died. Of this figure, 33 were on duty and 40 off duty.
But police brutality appears to be an enormous problem too.
A police brutality clinic run by Probono.org said earlier this year that they had seen a significant caseload increase since opening in 2011, with almost 240 clients so far. They were litigating 20 cases.
Dr Johan Burger from the Institute for Security Studies said that last year, 396 people died as a result of police action.
He said the question was: if all of those shootings were covered by CCTV footage, how many would have been done to genuinely defend themselves?
“You can’t compare police brutality to criminals shooting the police. Criminals are not bound by the law, while police are the protectors of the law,” he said, adding that the police had the law on their side. They were trained and were allowed to protect themselves with deadly force if need be.
“I know people are fed up with crime, and police officers are tired of being shot at, but if you go too far you are giving police the role of judge and executioner too, and that can lead to anarchy,” Burger said.
Police under close scrutiny
Techonology is changing how the public view both police and criminals.
Burger said that with smartphones and CCTV cameras around, it wasn’t surprising that such dramatic crime footage was finding its way onto social media.
“This has been happening for years in the US and UK. Over there it’s at a far more advanced stage with something called CopWatch,” he said.
This is where a group of people follow the police around and film their every move, posting on YouTube any time they see something wrong.
“Police fought back by putting dash cams in their vehicles to give their point of view,” said Burger.
“It’s a type of digital warfare. It acts as a deterrent to police abuse, but is also a disadvantage because police do need privacy on some operations they are working on.”
He said this was slowly catching on in South Africa, although it had been aimed more at exposing police corruption.
Support for colleagues
Meanwhile, police have decided to come out in support of their colleagues allegedly implicated in Mpanza’s shooting.
A South African police Facebook group have asked officers to come to court wearing a white T-shirt and blue jeans when the suspects appear.
“Remember, you are not supporting vigilante policing – this incident has done terrible damage to the image of the good police,” the group said.
They said they felt the trauma of being “targeted and slaughtered” with no response from anyone except the police community.
“We go as a community and send the message to the government that they are not on our side, but on the side of criminals.”
The Star
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