Crime in South Africa is rampant and knows no limits or bounds. It is an equal opportunity offender – no one is immune. Whether you are Cloete Murray and his son, AKA (Kiernan Forbes) or an ordinary citizen, your life and livelihood is in constant danger. This is abnormal.
What is abhorrent is that even when criminals are convicted, they are able to evade prison in espionage fashion like Thabo Bester, or pass away in suspicious motor vehicle accidents like Gavin Watson.
It is hardly a surprise that three quarters of South Africans do not trust the police, according to the most recent data provided by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). As of 2021, just 27% of citizens stated they trusted the police, down from 47% two decades before.
This public sentiment is caused largely by the bare facts. The latest crime stats released last month show an increase of 696 murders during the last three months of 2022, up from 6,859 murderers in the same quarter of the previous year.
Out of the 7,555 people murdered, 3,144 were killed with a gun, 2,498 killed with other weapons such as knives, sharp and blunt instruments, bricks and bare hands. Crime is not only rampant, but extremely violent.
Build One South Africa’s (Bosa) policy offer on safety provides measures including devolved police forces, elected station commanders, better training, transparent hiring and advancement, and a specialist most-wanted unit.
The failures of the SAPS and its Crime Intelligence division were laid bare on a national scale during the July riots in 2021, but at the community level, people suffer daily as a result of poor policing.
Dockets routinely go missing and evidence is often lost or rendered inadmissible, preventing successful prosecutions and convictions.
Just recently, the four accused in the abduction, rape and murder of Hillary Gardee, the daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, were released from court with all charges dropped.
According to the Institute for Security Studies, of the 47,984 external cases opened against police officials between 2012 and 2020, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate referred only 16% to the SAPS for disciplinary action, with a paltry 3.2% ending in a disciplinary conviction.
SAPS is poorly led and disconnected from the communities it is supposed to serve.
Fixing it requires decentralised policing, by devolving police powers to provinces, regions and municipalities. Subject to national standards and accountability, these provincial, district and local governments will be able to raise their own police forces made up of permanent officers and well-trained community volunteers.
Another creative intervention is to make police stations accountable to the public by making the office of station commander an elected position, voted upon by the community the station serves. This individual oversees the operation of the station and holds everyone accountable to the very highest standards.
We will introduce measures to significantly improve police training, for both new and existing personnel. This will include firearms competency, advanced driving skills, hostage negotiation and de-escalation skills, advanced investigation skills, evidence handling, bureaucratic procedures, racial sensitivity awareness and legal training aimed at upholding the Constitutional rights of both citizens and suspects.
Although the reforms that Bosa will push for are intended to strengthen and professionalise police forces across the board, special attention needs to be given to the most influential bosses at the top of the criminal food chain.
To this end, top criminals need to learn they can no longer bribe the police to look the other way, but that an incorruptible crack team will always be gunning for them.
Like all of Bosa’s 10 big ideas, none of these proposals require constitutional amendments or financing beyond what can be raised by reducing corruption and wastage, redirecting existing spending, and growing the economy to increase tax revenues.
With Bosa as part of a governing coalition, we’ll turn a police service that South Africans now fear and are frustrated by, into a force on which our people can rely, and of which they can be proud.
• Maimane is the leader of Bosa
MMUSI MAIMANE | SA needs decentralised policing to curb crime
Image: Sandile Ndlovu
Crime in South Africa is rampant and knows no limits or bounds. It is an equal opportunity offender – no one is immune. Whether you are Cloete Murray and his son, AKA (Kiernan Forbes) or an ordinary citizen, your life and livelihood is in constant danger. This is abnormal.
What is abhorrent is that even when criminals are convicted, they are able to evade prison in espionage fashion like Thabo Bester, or pass away in suspicious motor vehicle accidents like Gavin Watson.
It is hardly a surprise that three quarters of South Africans do not trust the police, according to the most recent data provided by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC). As of 2021, just 27% of citizens stated they trusted the police, down from 47% two decades before.
This public sentiment is caused largely by the bare facts. The latest crime stats released last month show an increase of 696 murders during the last three months of 2022, up from 6,859 murderers in the same quarter of the previous year.
Out of the 7,555 people murdered, 3,144 were killed with a gun, 2,498 killed with other weapons such as knives, sharp and blunt instruments, bricks and bare hands. Crime is not only rampant, but extremely violent.
Build One South Africa’s (Bosa) policy offer on safety provides measures including devolved police forces, elected station commanders, better training, transparent hiring and advancement, and a specialist most-wanted unit.
The failures of the SAPS and its Crime Intelligence division were laid bare on a national scale during the July riots in 2021, but at the community level, people suffer daily as a result of poor policing.
Dockets routinely go missing and evidence is often lost or rendered inadmissible, preventing successful prosecutions and convictions.
Just recently, the four accused in the abduction, rape and murder of Hillary Gardee, the daughter of former EFF secretary-general Godrich Gardee, were released from court with all charges dropped.
According to the Institute for Security Studies, of the 47,984 external cases opened against police officials between 2012 and 2020, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate referred only 16% to the SAPS for disciplinary action, with a paltry 3.2% ending in a disciplinary conviction.
SAPS is poorly led and disconnected from the communities it is supposed to serve.
Fixing it requires decentralised policing, by devolving police powers to provinces, regions and municipalities. Subject to national standards and accountability, these provincial, district and local governments will be able to raise their own police forces made up of permanent officers and well-trained community volunteers.
Another creative intervention is to make police stations accountable to the public by making the office of station commander an elected position, voted upon by the community the station serves. This individual oversees the operation of the station and holds everyone accountable to the very highest standards.
We will introduce measures to significantly improve police training, for both new and existing personnel. This will include firearms competency, advanced driving skills, hostage negotiation and de-escalation skills, advanced investigation skills, evidence handling, bureaucratic procedures, racial sensitivity awareness and legal training aimed at upholding the Constitutional rights of both citizens and suspects.
Although the reforms that Bosa will push for are intended to strengthen and professionalise police forces across the board, special attention needs to be given to the most influential bosses at the top of the criminal food chain.
To this end, top criminals need to learn they can no longer bribe the police to look the other way, but that an incorruptible crack team will always be gunning for them.
Like all of Bosa’s 10 big ideas, none of these proposals require constitutional amendments or financing beyond what can be raised by reducing corruption and wastage, redirecting existing spending, and growing the economy to increase tax revenues.
With Bosa as part of a governing coalition, we’ll turn a police service that South Africans now fear and are frustrated by, into a force on which our people can rely, and of which they can be proud.
• Maimane is the leader of Bosa
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