SOUTH AFRICA’S new police chief, Commissioner Bheki Cele, has told parliament he will ask deputies later this month to change the law so officers can shoot to kill when confronted by dangerous criminals.
The tough-talking former KwaZulu-Natal province minister for safety, who took up his new position last week, said on Wednesday that section 49 of the Criminal Procedures Act needed to be altered if South Africa’s high violent crime rates were to be tackled effectively.
“They plan properly and part of their plan is to kill people in their way,” he told parliament’s portfolio committee on police. “They plan for six months and that is why they don’t get empty banks.”
Under section 49, police can only use their weapons if they, or members of the public, are threatened with deadly force.
The legislation was introduced in the post-apartheid era due to the high number of black people shot and killed while running away from the police when protests and rallies against the white regime erupted in violence. However, in the 15 years since apartheid’s demise, violent crime has become endemic in South African society and the police have struggled to tackle the well-armed criminals.
Crime statistics for the 2007/8 financial year reveal there were 18,487 murders during that period, making South Africa one of the most dangerous places in the world outside of conflict zones.
Last month deputy minister of police Fikile Mbalula told parliament that in the 2008/9 financial year, 106 police officers perished in the line of duty, and over the previous five years, that number rose to 510.
Mr Cele maintained the figures showed that when police officers were faced with hardened criminals, hesitation was not an option and they did not have the time to wonder whether by law they had the right to shot.
“Either he [the criminal] acts correctly or we bury him.”
Mr Cele said he thought section 26 of the Act also needed to be changed so officers no longer had to ask permission before entering homes where they believed domestic violence was taking place. “Here we have a man busy tapping his wife and [police have to say] ‘please can I come in?’ It cannot be.”
Mr Cele has received a mixed reaction to his request for a shoot-to-kill policy. However, he has the backing of police minister Nathi Mthethwa, who also wants two sections rewritten, he said.