Phiyega's plans to address off-duty cop murders is ineffective
11 August 2014
A reply to a DA parliamentary question has revealed that the number of murders of off-duty South African Police Service (SAPS) members has marginally decreased in the last year but calls into question the effectiveness of the existing measures put in place to prevent such attacks on SAPS members.
The reply reveals that the murder of SAPS members is 48 as at the 2013/2014 financial year. This is not something we can accept as each murder represents a tragic loss to the family of that police officer and the depletion of valuable policing human resources.
Just last week the Western Cape High Court sentenced three men to 20 years in prison for the murder of an off-duty police officer at his home. The DA welcomes the court's ruling and believes that these murders should be prevented from happening in the first place.
The National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, needs to address issues surrounding officer accommodation for SAPS members who are vulnerable to being attacked in order to steal their weapons.
Furthermore the Police Commissioner must clarify the proportion of SAPS members who are deliberately targeted because they are police officers, as opposed to victims of opportunistic crime or social violent crime.
Our police officers put themselves in the line of fire every day to protect the South African people. It is now high-time that police top brass make concerted and effective efforts to protect our SAPS.
As such the DA will be submitting further parliamentary questions to ascertain what plans and interventions will be put in place to deal with:
The accommodation of vulnerable police officers whose weapons make them targets for violent attacks;
What proportion of SAPS members are intentionally targeted for being police officers; and
What SAPS plans to do to mitigate these murders.
It is time that the Police Minister, Nathi Nhleko, and Police Commissioner take further steps to ensure the safety of our police officers who, every day, deal with life-threatening situations to protect the South African people.
Statement issued by Zakhele Mbhele MP, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Police, August 11 2014
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