Amid the recent debate and speculative media reports around "shoot-to-kill", Nathi Mthethwa clarifies government’s position on the proposed legislative amendments to Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act. Two months ago, we released in Parliament to the nation our country's crime statistics for the financial year 2008/09.
While there were areas where government made strides in reducing other forms of crime, the picture still painted a disturbing portrait. A portrait that shows within our communities we still have criminals who are intent on robbing, destroying and killing to achieve their selfish desires. The crime trends further revealed that in relation to crimes such as murder, aggravated murder and hijackings, the criminals’ modus operandi is the same: kill whatever obstacle in front of them.
Often time and sadly, these "obstacles" are human lives, including those of police. What the crime trends told us is that the war against crime needs to be intensified. We need a new kind of approach in dealing with these heartless criminals. Things cannot be as usual while businesses continue to suffer financially, while women and children live in constant fear of being raped, while our youth cannot go out at night freely and our children at schools are constantly exposed to drugs.
Over the past weeks, there has been widespread, albeit premature debate on the intended amendments to section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act. There has also been a linking to these amendments; certain reported incidents where police are alleged to have shot innocent civilians who were not posing danger to their lives nor that of the society. We need to emphasise that unless there is legal and empirical evidence that such acts are directly linked to the proposed amendments, it would be premature and unfortunate to give qualified views, as has happened.
Such conclusions can only serve to fuel tensions between police and communities, something we do not require as a country. The fight against criminals can only gather momentum when it is police-society vs. criminals.
The President of the Republic and the leadership of police are clear in terms of our comments around this section. The amendments are aimed at clarifying ambiguities. We have through various media platforms and other stakeholder engagements, consistently clarified our position on the issue. That has not changed. We need to point out that many in our society, including the media, have sensationalised and misinterpreted this issue. There has been a general failure to recognise that the use of deadly force already applies in the current section.
The amendment is not intended to allow for trigger-happy police officers. The ongoing assertions that recent shooting incidents of innocent civilians are caused by police recklessness cannot be concluded by "media courts." As Government we have not formulated the slogan "shoot-to-kill." This is a media talk which has been widely popularised in a very wrong and negative manner. It needs to be made clear that the amendments to section 49 speak to our ability to deal with violent criminals who place lives of both police officers and the public in danger. Indeed, the clarifications will assist in ensuring that law enforcement officers are better able to understand their responsibilities. Once effected, the changes will leave police in a situation where they will be less open to uncertainty when applying force. We expect of our members, in their duties of combating and fighting crime, to do so within the boundaries of the law. This is not negotiable.
Furthermore, it is important to keep in mind that the amendments to section 49 are part of a broader strategy to fight crime. This strategy includes amongst others, the strengthening of our intelligence, partnerships with communities and the review of the Criminal Justice framework. This framework has been criticized by some members of the public for giving violent criminals more rights than victims.
What we have also been emphasizing is that the review of the legislative framework is to be accompanied by the strengthening of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). The ICD is better positioned to investigate such cases because simply put, police cannot investigate themselves. We believe in the transparency and objectivity of the ICD and that each case brought before them, irrespective of whoever is found to have transgressed the law, will be dealt with without fear or favour. This will ensure that whatever approach we develop has built-in checks and balances to prevent abuse.
Serious violent organised crime remains a crucial focus of the SAPS. We are still concerned about its impact; however considerable strides have been made in setting up effective structures such as the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) i.e. "The hawks". With the establishment of the DPCI we have begun to some impact in not only dealing with violent organised crime but also the illicit drug trade and commercial crime. All these interventions are policy-driven.
The legislation around the control of firearms in our country is clear: no criminal can point a firearm and shoot at a police officer. Equally, no police officer must shoot at innocent civilians who pose no danger to them. If any of these is proven before a legally-constituted institution, we will not hesitate to take the harshest action against whomever. As the leadership of police we remain profoundly distressed by the number of SAPS members who have died in the line of duty.
We are intent on channelling our energies around fighting crime, in partnership with our communities. What we are not satisfied with, is spending the bulk of our time attending funerals of police, who get killed by ruthless criminals while defending our society. We will persist in addressing the dangers that face our members and to find ways to protect them. Government will not shy away from its responsibility of fighting crime; however, all these approaches will be done within the law. Neither will government be held at ransom by criminals. In doing so, we first move from an acknowledgement that the levels of crime are unacceptably high thus require closer cooperation between police and communities.
Let us not "kill" our hard-fought democracy by allowing the fight against criminals to be distracted through misrepresentation of facts. Instead, let’s all strengthen our efforts of ensuring a safer country.
Issued by: South African Police Service
13 November 2009
Source: South African Police Service (http://www.saps.gov.za/default.htm)
