Coligny, Lichtenburg violent acts demand more from SAPS
26 April 2017
Scenes of violence, looting and community division in Coligny and Lichtenburg, in the last 24 hours, highlight the need for a far greater SAPS response to prevent violent protests before they escalate.
The DA calls for calm in these areas. Violence has never, and will never, solve the serious problems we face.
It is the responsibility of the South African Police Service to police violent protests, and to stop threats of violence from materialising, but in this case there has clearly been a failure by the SAPS.
The DA has learnt that the SAPS has still not mobilised standby and auxiliary SAPS members in the Lichtenburg area, and the only officers initially sent into the Coligny violence were local Coligny SAPS members, who were later backed up by no more than six public order police and one nyala. This is a major failure by the SAPS, and the escalation to public order policing was not fast enough.