S. African gov't urged to stop police killings

A group of people gathered outside the Hillbrow Police Station in central Johannesburg on Monday to pay their last respects to police officers who have been the victims of brutal criminal activity.

The event was organized by the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) to press for urgent government intervention to stop police killings that have continued unabated since the beginning of this year.

This came after two more police officers were killed over the weekend, bringing to 57 the death toll of police officers killed this year.

"This cannot be accepted any longer. When more than four police officers are killed on average a month in a year, we need to, together as a country say that this cannot be allowed to continue any longer. This needs to stop," said Zakhele Mbhele, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Police.

Police killings are not a new problem, he said, adding that the failure to bring down the murders of police officers "is by and large due to a lack of political and operational will".

Mbhele blamed a poor intelligence system which has wreaked havoc on the South African Police Service(SAPS)'s ability to obtain accurate intelligence into criminal activity which means that police officers are sent into dangerous situations that are made lethal because the necessary risk assessment and intelligence is often inaccurate or non-existent.

"This allows criminals to out-maneuver our police. We need a non-political, crime intelligence focused on fight crime, not political battles," said Mbhele.

According to the Institute of Security Studies (ISS), plans for promoting police safety were not being implemented.

The ISS has found that required training was non-existent or inadequate, there were not enough bullet-proof vests and probably most importantly, there was poor managerial supervision and accountability at station and unit level. Endit