Calls are growing for more measures to be put in place to ensure the safety of police officers and police stations, after more reports of officers falling victims of crime in Gauteng.
Two officers, sergeant Vusumuzi Innocent Batsha, 45, and constable Khotso Malahlela, 29, were brutally killed at Angelo Squatter Camp, Boksburg on Thursday night last week in what is believed to be an ambush.
No arrests have been made yet in connecting with the police murder. Police started a manhunt.
General Fannie Masemola called on all citizens to contribute towards building a safer and securer country by working closely with the police in ending the senseless attacks and killings of police officers.
Masemola’s comments followed the killing of Batsha and Malahlela, who were both attached to the Boksburg North Police Station
“The killing of police officers in the line of duty and for their service pistols undermines the authority of the state and the proper functioning of the criminal justice system,” said Masemola. “While we review our police safety strategy and plan, as management we are calling for greater co-operation with our citizens, to put an end to such incidents collectively. We believe that such incidents can be prevented. We will not rest until we find those behind the attack and killing of police officers.”
They were responding to a complaint of an unnatural death in the area when they were accosted by three males. At the time of the attack, the pair were waiting for a mortuary van when they were disarmed and fatally wounded.
The suspects, who fled the scene on foot, took off with the deceased officers’ service pistols and bullet-proof vests.
FF Plus called for security measures at police stations to be intensified following the latest killings and recently there had been robberies at police stations, where robbers made off with state firearms and ammunition.
“The FF Plus has repeatedly warned the Provincial Commissioner of Gauteng, Lieutenant General Elias Mawela, to ensure that police officers are properly equipped and that police stations are not understaffed. The party will continue to remind the commissioner that the lives of police members are valuable, and that no police weapon may end up in the hands of criminals,” said FF Plus MPL Kobus Hoffman.
Earlier this month, Mawela deployed maximum resources in a bid to apprehend those who are behind an attack on the Devon Police Station in the Ekurhuleni District.
Three suspects entered the station during the early hours under the pretence that they were reporting a hijacking incident, they proceeded to disarm members on duty and made off with 10 firearms including 3x rifles and 7x pistols that were also in the safe.
Following those incidents, some citizens took to social media and suggested that security guards should be deployed at police stations.
However, Institute for Security Studies (ISS) head of the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme, Gareth Newham, disagreed, saying police officers were trained and armed, and there was no need for security guards at police stations.
Newham said there has been a huge amount of work going back to 1998 to improve police officer safety in South Africa.
“We have seen huge improvement since then but unfortunately we still have situations where criminals target police officers, although most police officers are killed off-duty,” he said.
Newham said the best way to improve officer safety was to have a detailed investigation for every incident, not only to identify the attackers and ensure that they were arrested and charged for assault and murder, but also to understand the context in which the attack took place so that there could be a better understanding of the kind of factors that placed police officers at risk so that they could be trained in such a way as to enhance safety.
He said they needed to look at moments leading up to the attack, what the police officers were doing, what kind of briefing they received in the morning, and what signs were there that they might be in danger so that there was a better understanding of the attacks to ensure a better response.
“You do not need security guards at the police station because you have police officers who are trained and armed. The best way is to make sure that there is detailed research for every attack that takes place so that we better understand how to improve officer safety by looking at the factors that put officers at risk,” Newham said.
POPCRU spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said to date, there have been over 35 reported cases of police killings who were on duty, with many more either being killed off duty, while others have sustained career-threatening injuries and are left disabled. “This trend continues unabated, with the SAPS management having failed to come up with a plan to curb such incidents. This apparent targeting of police officers, on or off duty, has inevitably increased members’ feelings of unsafety and insecurity. It is a clear sign that these officers are being singled out as targets for attacks for their firearms which are later utilised to perpetuate further criminal activities,” Mamabolo said.
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