Mbalula admits crime is out of control – SANDF must help

12 October 2017  

The request by the Minister of Police, Fikile Mbalula, for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) to be deployed to support the police in the Western Cape and certain parts of Gauteng is as good as an admission that crime is out of control, says Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus and chief spokesperson for police and defence.

“The SANDF assisting the police is not unheard of, but it is certainly not ideal. South Africa seems to have regressed to the eighties when soldiers and armoured vehicles patrolled the townships to combat crime. The blame for this is to be placed squarely on the shoulders of the government, specifically those of Presidents Thabo Mbeki and Jacob Zuma.

“The president is responsible for appointing the commissioner of police and all the appointments since 1999 (Jackie Selebi) were failures.

“We now have to reap the bitter fruits of the political capture of intelligence institutions. Because these institutions are not busy fighting crime and are instead being used for political purposes, crime is rampant in South Africa and some civilians are paying for this with their lives. This is a blemish on the name of the government.

Drastic action together with interventions in the police are needed because the high crime rate is driving the country to the brink of anarchy. The fact that communities are increasingly taking the law into their own hands and murdering suspected criminals by necklacing, is shocking.

“Communities will only go to these measures if they have lost faith in the police, which is evidently what happened in Marikana in Philippi in the Western Cape,” says Dr Groenewald.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus Leader, 12 October 2017