KwaZulu-Natal’s new police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khombinkosi Elvis Jula is determined to be remembered as the person who took the fight against crime to “unprecedented levels”.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Sunday Tribune this week he vowed to beef up collaboration with communities, restore investor confidence and put a dent in the province’s high murder rate. He told Sunday Tribune writer Wendy Jasson da Costa that he was pleased to be back at home.
Jula started his tenure as the province’s top cop at the beginning of August, a month before the annual release of the country’s crime statistics. It will be a year before anyone can see if his presence has made a difference to the safety of citizens in KZN.
However, he will be judged on the crime statistics of the Western Cape from where he was deployed and he has many detractors who questioned his performance in that province. Jula though is happy with the outcome of his role there.
“...It was very good. It’s just that gangsterism didn’t start in 2016 when I got there.” He said that the gang violence had its roots in the DNA of the children who were recruited from the age of nine and that it was difficult to combat.
Despite this, last year KZN emerged as the murder capital of South Africa with 4382 killings recorded between 1 April 2017 - 31 March 2018. The Western Cape was third with 3729 murders. Jula said he was determined to nip crime especially murder, attempted murder and carjackings in the bud, after all, it was his desperation to stop crime that saw him leave his Fidelity security guard job to join the police and rise through the ranks.
Coming back to KZN gave the man from Mtwalume “a good challenge to plow back” to the province of his birth. With 25 000 officers under his command he says the police will have to work smartly with the resources they have to ensure all basis are covered.
His wife Phindile and his five children are happy to be back at home but it appears Jula will have little time to celebrate because “I can’t say to communities they need to be patient.”
One of his chief goals is to change perceptions about the police and the kind of service people can expect. He says the community should feel “welcomed” whenever they approach a police centre and feel safe in their neighbourhoods.
“We are going to inculcate the customer is king principle,” said Jula.
He also wants to ensure that the channels of communication are always open. Citizen WhatsApp groups and strong bonds with community policing forums are going to play a key role in ensuring that any unusual activity even at street level is brought to the police’s attention.
"We want to ask communities to jealously protect their neighbourhoods. They don’t need to expose themselves to risk but just report the info,” said Jula.
Violence monitor Mary de Haas said: “He needs to prioritise rooting out corruption and holding all management accountable and ensuring feedback to community. He needs to do something urgently regarding detective service and crime intelligence which are both riddled with serious problems.”
Jula agrees and says they have started a detective skills audit process to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the 5-thousand strong detective force.
To improve their capacity the more skilled detectives would be paired with junior ones to mentor them. Rooting out the rogue elements in the police and working closely with the NPA to ensure that bail for criminals is not “granted lightly” is also on the cards.
In addition the new police boss has vowed to go after drug lords and drug syndicates by identifying drug houses and drugs dens and embark on intelligence operations to close them down.
Just like his favourite soccer team, Kaizer Chiefs, Jula will have to produce some nifty footwork to score important goal against crime. He says he is up to the task and quotes his favourite Bible verse: "When you are weak, you are strong," to prove that with God and a good police force on his side, the citizens of KZN will see results.