The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has called for harsher sentences from the courts for those convicted of killing police officers.
This comes after an Eastern Cape woman, Andiswa Nqiqi, 38, was sentenced to just three years correctional supervision in the Fort Beaufort Regional Court earlier this week after she was for murdering her husband.
The woman shot dead her cop husband, Constable Wongama Nqiqi, in August 2021. She event went to the extent of covering up the murder as a suicide.
She was sentenced to 36 months of correctional supervision, to be under house arrests for the duration of her correctional supervision, to engage in 16 hours of community service each month of her correctional supervision, five years imprisonment, wholly suspended for five years provided she does not get involved in violent crime again.
This sentence has angered Popcru, who said police killers should get sterner sentences.
IOL has learnt that the court was swayed by a social worker’s report, which found that since the woman had four minor children, it would adversely affect them if she was incarcerated.
“This is atrocious. She clearly got off lightly,” said Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said.
Popcru, established in 1989, is a trade union in South Africa representing police officers, traffic officers, and correctional officers, with about 120,000 members in the country.
Mamabola said the union has been having recent discussions which include the alarming killings of police officers.
He said over 92 police officers were killed in the last year.
In February, in the third quarter crime statistics for the period from October 2023 to December 2023 were released by National Police Minister Bheki Cele.
Cele said 22 police officers were killed during the third quarter.
“We will not hesitate to ensure that those who harbour police killers or are in any way involved in criminal activity related to police killings, will face the same consequences as the criminal who actually pulled the trigger,” Cele warned.
During the Policing Indaba in October last year, Mamabola said Popcru proposed legislative amendments to consider police killings as treason as it was “a clear attack on the authority of the state”.
“This therefore means there should be much harsher sentences, and bail should at all times be denied,” Mamabola said.
But, he did state the incident of the woman murdering her husband was quite unique.
“In most cases, police officers would be killed by people not directly related to them for purposes of acquiring their firearms to perpetuate criminal activities further, or at times for the cases that these officers would be investigating,” Mamabola said.
He said last week, a panel was held by the Department of Justice to review the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977, in possibly aligning it with the post-1994 realities.
“We believe this is among the correct and promising steps that need to be taken in addressing the killing of officers and many other challenges faced, especially considering the rising crime levels our country finds itself,” Mamabola said.
robin.francke@iol.co.za
IOL