DURBAN - THE Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has called on the SAPS for a joint summit that would look into possible causes and solutions to police murders.
The call followed investigations that were under way into the murder of an off-duty policeman in Botha’s Hill, in Durban, on Monday night.
Sergeant EB Smith, 40, who was stationed at Hillcrest SAPS, had been walking to his car in Patna Road after visiting a friend when he was gunned down.
KwaZulu-Natal Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said the policeman was fatally shot by unknown men at 7pm.
Mhlongo said Smith was off duty. The motive for the killing was unknown and no arrests had been made. Netcare 911 spokesperson Shawn Herbst said Smith was found unresponsive on the ground.
When he was assessed by medics, they found that he had suffered fatal injuries and died on the scene.
Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo told the union it was immaterial whether police officials were killed while off duty or on duty.
Mamabolo said the point was that their lives were being lost.
Police, on or off duty, were targeted for various reasons, he said, including the kinds of cases they were handling. Their murders were aimed at intimidating officers contemplating further investigations and arrests, he added.
“We feel SAPS management has not had a plan to deal with this challenge, despite our many pleas with regard to jointly having some form of a summit that would look into possible causal factors and possible solutions.
“One thing that is clear, however, is that not one component can do it alone. We need to act collectively, while also improving police-community working relations,” Mamabolo said.
Last week when Police Minister General Bheki Cele released the fourth quarter crime statistics 2020/21, he said the murder of police officials was a crisis in the department.
“A crisis is unfolding and has the potential to threaten the country’s peace and stability: the death of SAPS members at the hands of callous, heartless and brazen criminals.
“In the first three months of this year, 24 police officers were killed. Eleven of them were killed on duty while preventing, combating or solving a crime.
“Some were attacked or ambushed while conducting patrols and their official firearms stolen.”
The National Crime Statistics reflect crimes reported to the SAPS from January 1 to March 31, 2021.
“It cannot be normal that police officers who go out there to protect and to serve are killed and the public remains unshaken.
“There is no public outrage, no outcry from activists and NGOs and no one is demanding justice for them.
“So, if we are to win this fight against crime, such criminal acts against the police can’t be ignored but be addressed at community level,” Cele said.
The Durban Serious Organised Crime unit is investigating a case of murder.
Daily News