“While South Africa is commemorating child protection week, the new crime statistics show that child murders are up by 37% in the last quarter. It is a disgrace that children are not safe in our country, and all because of political interference in law-enforcement,” said Ian Cameron, director of community safety at Action Society.
Cameron said that South Africa is a bloodbath and that cadre deployment is the root cause of the destruction of the South African Police Service.
“Most violent crime has increased with reported rape cases up by a shocking 13.7% and murder up by 22.2% and the conviction rate seems to be on the decrease. South Africa will soon be one of the kidnapping hotspots in the world, and once again, women and children are left to fend for themselves as political leadership has destroyed the integrity of the South African Police Service,” said Cameron.
From January to March 2022, 6 083 people were murdered in the country, an increase of 4 976 from the same period last year.
According to Cameron, solutions are simple:
1. Do a skills audit in the SAPS to determine the merit of appointments and if there is no merit, that member must be sacked.
2. Polygraph all members, starting with leadership to determine whether they have been involved in any corrupt activities, if so, sack them.
3. Restore crime intelligence capabilities.
4. Reinstate specialised units that can deal with serious violent crime effectively without having to live in the community they work in.
5. Crime kingpins, including those part of the state, need to be targeted and taken out of operation.
6. Restore reservist capabilities, especially to support specialised units. It is of utmost importance that these reservists do not come from the said communities in order for intimidation to be limited.
7. Pay police members properly.
8. Implement police devolution in the Western Cape as a proof of concept.
