'Fall on your sword': Police union calls for national commissioner's head over crime stats

The South African Policing Union (Sapu) has called for President Cyril Ramaphosa to fire national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola over his “inability” to fight the high levels of crime. 

The call comes after the latest statistics showed a spike in serious crime with 6,289 people killed from January to March, a 3.4% increase compared to the same period in 2022. 

The union has repeatedly called for the re-establishment of specialised units, saying a focused approach is needed to target serious and violent crimes.

Sapu national spokesperson Lesiba Thobakgale said the same call was made when police minister Bheki Cele was national commissioner. 

“It was agreed upon during 2020 when we agreed on restructuring on the principle that specialised units will be re-established. In the current tenure of Masemola, we made this call and further proposals on the re-establishment. Unfortunately, he does not want to listen yet he is failing,” said Thobakgale.

The units proposed by Sapu include the: 

• Murder and robbery unit;
• Drug unit (SANAB);
• Diamond, gold, and precious stones unit;
• Stock theft unit;
• Family violence, child abuse and the sexual unit;
• Public order policing unit; and
• Crime intelligence initial investigation unit (former uniform investigation unit).

Thobakgale described the release of the crime stats as a publicity stunt, saying no action is taken afterwards. Instead, fear is instilled in people when it is shown how bad the crime situation is.

“Crime stats are released for SAPS to assess themselves on policing then after that measures should be taken to curb crime.

“We are not being personal with Masemola but we are on a principle that we gave him support since his appointment, and also gave proposals that will assist him to fight crime. Yet, it is evident Masemola has no political will to act on our proposals for the benefit of the service and of the country as everything we propose falls on deaf ears.

“We are calling on President Cyril Ramaphosa to assess the national commissioner and that has not happened. We are now calling on the president not to politicise or normalise crime because being a victim of crime is a painful experience.

“We cannot have a national commissioner who is silent when innocent lives are being lost ... there is no deputy national commissioner for detectives which plays a critical role in an investigation in the service,” said Thobakgale. 

The union called for Masemola to “fall on his sword”, he has dismally failed in all aspects of his job as hundreds of functionary members on the ground have lost confidence in him.

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