activities
27 August 2007
The South African Human Rights Commission has had yet another armed robbery
at its Johannesburg offices yesterday. This is the second armed robbery, after
the one that took place last month and the seventh burglary since the
occupation of the Commission in the current building.
Again in this robbery, the same modus operandi was executed by the armed
robbers who targeted the same two floors and took a substantial number of
hard-drives and flat screen monitors, amongst other things. The robbers tied-up
a Commissioner and members of staff who, at the time were working overtime,
trying to deal with the backlog from the first robbery in July.
The Commission is concerned that the same gang of armed robbers could be
responsible for these criminal activities and that there could be a link
between the two armed robberies. In particular, the Commission is worried about
the impunity with which these robbers display at these robberies for example,
by not hiding their faces.
Another major concern is the ineffectiveness of the law enforcement agencies
in dealing with these matters. Thus far, on all the previous robberies, the
South African Police Service (SAPS) has not been able to make any arrests and
have not provided any feedback to the Commission. Another example of such
inefficiency demonstrated by the SAPS members is that since the last robbery,
no identikits were been drawn and statements were taken only from the security
personnel and only after persuasion by the Commission.
Attacks such as these undermine the work and the efficacy of the Commission
and we would like to plead with government and law enforcement agencies to
increase efficiency of their members by providing the necessary training and
appropriate resources to facilitate speedy resolution of these cases. Members
of the public are also urged to provide the police with information as and when
they witness criminal activity taking place.
Issued by: South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)
27 August 2007
