Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said the focus of the SAPS is to disarm those criminals who have illegal firearms, as he cited an incident in Cato Manor, Durban, where five suspected robbers were killed by police.
The police have killed 14 murder and robbery suspects in KwaZulu-Natal in the past two weeks.
“There was a shoot-out between police and some gangs in Cato Manor in eThekwini and a few days ago there was a heist in the Eastern Cape.
In both instances there were a lot of dangerous firearms discovered after police overpowered these gangs,” said Mchunu.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said five suspects, who were wanted for a string of murder and business robbery cases, were fatally wounded in a shoot-out with police in Cato Crest on Tuesday night.
Netshiunda said last week nine murder and armed robbery suspects were shot and fatally wounded in shooting incidents with police in a span of four days.
Mchunu on Wednesday told national broadcaster eNCA that crime is affecting the business sector and the economy, and this was the reason that President Cyril Ramaphosa and other ministers have created a forum to look into the matter.
Mchunu said various agreements and processes are under way and Ramaphosa is going to hold a meeting very soon on the matter, together with business.
He said his department will be working with both local and provincial governments to tackle crime and that they are thinking of creating a dedicated unit in this regard.
He said they will be holding a meeting with their human resources department to look at their structures and ascertain whether they are positioned to deal with crime effectively.
Mchunu said they have decided to engage with metros, starting with the City of Cape Town, regarding “synergising” metro police with the SAPS.
“We can look at ways and means of synergising our act because they have metro police and we have SAPS,” he said, adding that this would have a “good impact” in the fight against crime on the ground.
He said that in this meeting, they will discuss measures to get rid of rogue elements within the SAPS. He said police officers are a symbol of order in the country and are expected to behave accordingly.
Mchunu said they will be visiting each province in the next few weeks to look at policing strategies and the impact of policing in each province.
Netshiunda on Tuesday told a national broadcaster, in response to criticism of police being heavy-handed, that a police officer was shot on Sunday in a shoot-out with business robbers.
“He is lying in hospital, he was shot by criminals not by police, and he didn’t shoot first.”
He said in the first week of September the police will honour those officers whose lives were taken by criminals in the line of duty.
“Nobody goes out to kill anybody, nobody wants to die while they are doing their jobs.
“Police in this province are not heavy handed, when you go to arrest somebody and that person resists arrest and shoots at you, you are left with one option to defend yourself and preserve your life and the lives of those around you,” said Netshiunda.
He said police in KZN had arrested more than 37 000 suspects since April 1, emphasising that they were arrested and “not shot at”.
The Mercury