Speaker notes by the Minister of Police, Mr Fikile Mbalula during a Press Conference to outline the ministerial reinforcement of SAPS Units, Chatsworth, KwaZulu-Natal
Former President Nelson Mandela had this to say “Take your guns, your knives and pangas (machetes) and throw them into the sea”, this was February 1990, KwaZulu Natal was a battlefield and blood of South Africans had been lost. As the Minister of Police, I want to evoke this call by our former President, that it is enough, all these killings must come to an end.
The recent spate of killings of leaders in KwaZulu-Natal has reached unprecedented and appalling levels which should be condemned in the strongest possible way by all sectors of society.
Since last year, there have been killings mostly in Inchanga, Plessislaer, Newcastle, Ladysmith, Escourt, Harding, Margate, Nongoma, Howick, Hlobane, and Gamalakhe Pongol, areas have been affected.
Some of the other areas which were affected by instability in the Greater Durban areas are Folweni, Inanda, Umlazi, KwaNdengezi, KwaMashu, Ntuzuma, Lamontville, Keatsdrift (Msinga), Nquthu, Jozini, eDumbe (Paulpietersburg), Nhlalakahle, (Greytown), Sobantu, New Hanover, Manguzi and KwaDabeka.
From January 2016 to date 33 murder cases are currently under investigation.
We condemn in the strongest terms the use of violence as a way of settling differences between our people. It has always been a held view by majority of our people that only dialogue can resolve our differences not violence or confrontation.
There are a number of interventions in place both by police as well as the leadership of KwaZulu-Natal to try and resolve the tension and to stabilise the affected areas.
There have been deployments of members from the units of Public Order Policing, the Tactical Response Team, the National Intervention Unit and Visible Policing.
There are deployments in all the above-mentioned affected areas in KwaZulu-Natal in an effort to prevent further attacks and killings from taking place.
Sadly, despite these interventions, as late as this past week, a councillor was killed in Ibisi. On Tuesday 23 May 2017 at 18:30 Mr MW Shibase (39) who is an ANC ward 14 councillor and an educator had just arrived at his residence at Gugwini in Ibisi, when he was shot by unknown armed men.
From January to April this year the police have conducted several operations in the affected areas which resulted in the recovery of over 1510 firearms including pistols, rifles, shotguns and homemade guns. A further 8500 rounds of ammunition and over 320 explosives were also seized during these operations.
Furthermore, the office of the Premier and the MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison has had a number of engagements with various stakeholders to bring about stability in the affected areas.
An integrated Provincial Project Task Team comprising of the Hawks, Detectives, Crime Intelligence, LCRC and NPA, which was established to deal with all these cases is doing a sterling job and this team is going to be enhanced as of today.
While in many of these cases the investigations have been completed and/or they are ready for trial and bail have been successfully opposed in most cases, there is still some work to be done with the other cases.
We will be deploying additional members to this task team from the National Detective Services and the Hawks, led by Brigadier Shabalala. This team will serve to enhance the current investigative capacity and they will have the services of the National Intervention Unit as well as the National Task Force when they are required.
This team is mandated to immediately attend to, investigate and prosecute in all of these cases. They are to ensure those who are responsible for committing these crimes are arrested, bail is opposed and they are prosecuted as speedily as possible to ensure deterrence to the continuation of these crimes and to instill public confidence and stability.
The South African Police Service Crime Intelligence network has also been intensified to collect proactive intelligence around the tension in the affected areas. The Intelligence community will continue with its mandate of identifying instigators of violence, provide the necessary early warning information/intelligence relating to disputes that could threatened the stability of the Province and even lead to loss of lives.
However, to overcome tensions and subsequent killings, the need for tolerance and community participation cannot be over emphasized. We are urging people to assist the police with information, preferably before a crime is committed so that decisive action can be taken by our police officers on the ground.
The police officials that have been detailed to the task of preventing and investigating these crimes have been mandated to ensure that all those responsible are arrested and made to bear the full brunt of the law.
Those who are Political activist must take this advice from one of the greatest revolutionaries, Ernesto Che Guevara, that “the true revolutionary is guided by a great feeling of love. It is impossible to think of a genuine revolutionary lacking this quality.” Therefore activist must have love for life and humanity only a criminal masquerading as an activist will kill for political power.
Thank you.
