By Minister Nathi Nhleko
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Every September, we honour and commemorate the men and women in blue who are murdered whether on duty or off. On September 6, we will be doing the same – honouring 86 members who were butchered in the financial year ending March 2015.
We will be doing this against the background of a renewed onslaught against police officers. They are killed off-duty by people who have grudges against them — or, they are found dead in unexplained circumstances. At the weekend, three police officers were attacked in separate incidents with two succumbing to their injuries.
As government, we pay tribute to our heroes who have fallen in recent weeks – the men and women in blue who are responsible for selflessly serving and protecting our communities. We salute their bravery and commitment.
The killing of police officers is becoming a worrying trend. In this calendar year alone, 60 police officers have been killed. It seems this onslaught is also directed at metro police officers. Recently, a Johannesburg metro police officer was killed in a scuffle after he intervened when he came across two men robbing a cash-in-transit security guard.
He was shot once in the scuffle, and twice more after he fell to the ground. Two days later, a 36-year-old police officer was killed during a shoot-out with robbers at the Vosloorus Crossing Mall.
On the same day, in the Western Cape, Petrus Holz, 50, a member of the Hawks, was stabbed to death when he stopped on the N2 to inspect damage to his car after he drove over debris.
A day later, a 35-year-old officer was shot while responding to a business robbery in the north of Pretoria. He died on arrival at a local hospital. And the next day, a 34-year-old police constable was shot and killed in Jeppestown, Johannesburg, when he and a colleague went to investigate a group of men sitting in a parked minibus taxi. This past weekend police officers were shot and killed in Atteridgeville and Hillbrow.
This brings to 60 police officers who had been killed since January, compared to 47 for the same period last year. This is a tragedy.
All of these fallen heroes never hesitated for a moment to answer the call of duty and to make the sacrifice required of them. They put their lives in danger to defend and preserve the lives of others from ruthless criminals.
Government, at the highest level, has been quick in reacting to the recent murders, with President Jacob Zuma visiting the families of the deceased.
The President has called on all of us to work together with the police to end the killings. Ultimately, if the police are being killed, we are all in danger as they are there to help and protect us. A police officer's first order of business is to serve and protect. Crime control and order maintenance are the primary roles of the police and if they are killed while performing these duties, all of us should be worried.
We also need to realise that apart from curbing crime, police play other bigger roles in the community - such as helping citizens in times of crisis and emergency, protecting citizens on the road by issuing tickets to dangerous and careless drivers. In communities, police help to deter illegal and dangerous behaviour. However, the relationship between the police and the public determines to a significant degree just how effective policing will be done.
The need for the public to assist the police in doing their work is crucial in curbing the killings of our men and women in blue. More significantly, members of the public should be in a position to identify the perpetrators of these crimes.
For our part as government, we will continue to strengthen our measures to curb police killings. We will continue to provide support to our police officers. The visit by President Zuma to the families of the dead this week was evidence that this is a caring government.
Although every police official acknowledges that their duties contain a great deal of danger, it’s a catastrophe that we have lost so many police officers through the year.
We continue to salute our police officers who were their badges courageously and perform their duties with passion. We commend those members who continue to have an unwavering commitment to their duties, a duty in which every minute of the day holds the threat of losing their own lives while safeguarding others.
As we remember these fallen officers, let’s take comfort in recalling that they dedicated their lives to serve and protect the citizens of South Africa. Our duty is to ensure that not one police officer is killed. Citizens should play their role and report the killers.
Nathi Nhleko is Minister of Police
