The number of explosives incidents resulting in injury or loss of lives amongst civilian population necessitates an integrated approach, not only in apprehending criminals who utilize explosives to commit crime, but also the society to exercise precautionary measures.
The Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa today expressed concern at the total number of bomb disposal activities recorded by the Department over the past four years. He has accordingly urged society to be more careful in ensuring the safety and security, especially those of children. Explosives incidents amongst the civilian population are high and some of the factors identified by the Department include, school children experimenting with home-made explosives; illegal storage and unauthorized use of explosives by registered users or blasters.
“In cases where criminals have been involved in ATM bombings, we have through our intelligence, communities and business partnerships, managed to deal a deadly blow to these crimes. As government, we shall spare neither effort nor strength in ensuring that these criminals fail in their selfish acts.”
“We have also noted that curiosity of members of the public who discover abandoned or any other unusual and discarded explosives contributes to this high figure. This usually leads to the person being injured and we therefore appeal to the society to refrain from this practice,” added Minister Mthethwa.
The total number of bomb disposal activities recorded by the South African Police Service for the 2006/07, 2007/08, 2008/09 financial years as well as during the period 1 April 2009 shows an average of between 17 000 incidents nationally. In the 2006/07 there were 19 276, in 2007/08 the figure was 17/839, and in 2008/09 it reached its highest at 21 391 and for the 2009/10 fiscal years till end of December 2009, the figure stood at 16 750.
Other factors which contribute to this increase are as a result of criminals’ usage of explosives. While there may have been a trend by criminals of targeting and bombing ATMs in the past two years, police through community and business partnerships formulated effective strategies which resulted in significant declines of ATM bombings over the last nine months.
The Minister stated that the majority of explosive devices or materials originate from the explosive devices partially those used ATM and other criminal attacks originate from the mines while others are commercial explosives used in blastings. In addition, illegal storage and use of fireworks and pyrotechnics leads to injuries and damages.
Minister Mthethwa further urged the public to ensure refrain from resources intended to curb criminals for non-policing issues. “The majority of the calls which the police receive, for example through our 10111 call centres, are hoax calls of bomb incidents and threats. While police will treat and follow up on each case as an actual incident, it is time consuming and in fact, demoralizing when they have spared no effort in investigations, only to discover it was a hoax.”
This Minister’s statement is supported by a Departmental investigation undertaken last year, which showed an estimated 76% of calls received at some 10111 centres were typically non-police related. These calls varied from prank calls, to emergency services enquiries, for ambulance, fire brigade services, requesting of road directions to hospitals, hotels and requesting legal advice relating to domestic violence and/or other personal problems.
For enquiries, please contact:
Zweli Mnisi, Ministerial Spokesperson
Cell: 082 045 4024
Issued by: Ministry of Police
24 March 2010
