“Cops are losing the war on crime” – Police official’s alarming revelation

If you ask most South Africans if they think that SAPS are doing a good job in beating crime, they will certainly say no. While the men and women cops at SAPS might not be at fault, they are understaffed, underfunded and yes, undertrained. All of these put together makes it almost impossible for Police to win the war on crime.

So impossible in fact, that a senior police official has admitted that they are losing the war on crime. The shockingly honest statement comes a few months after President Zuma announced the establishment of two specialised units within the Hawks to deal with illegal guns and drugs in the Western Cape and other provinces.

Crime in the Western Cape is getting worse

So how are these “specialised” units doing? Head of analysis for the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) Major- General Peter Arendse revealed that ZERO arrests, convictions or confiscations of firearms had been made by the Western Cape unit.

Arendse was addressing MPs at a police committee meeting and MPs were left astounded by the revelation. Chairperson of the portfolio committee, Francis Beukman said it was unacceptable that no results were yielded.

“Our dilemma with that statement is we expect them to come with solutions. Crime is a multifaceted problem, and it needs a multipronged approach to deal with the circulation of illegal firearms.”

“We can never accept that crime can win. If there is a crime problem in a certain field then there must be strategies. I feel that was missing from the presentation and we feel it’s the important thing to deal with it holistically.”

Beukman also acknowledged staffing issues were mentioned as part of the reason for the spike in serious crime.  He did, however, believe that there were men and women that could do the job.

“In Western Cape we see minors that are killed with illegal guns and that means there is a large gun-running issue. The SAPS have over 193000 members and there are a lot of talented people that can deal with it. The acting head must come to the committee and indicate what steps they are taking and get resources and (an) action plan to deal with it.”

IOL spoke to senior crime and justice program researcher Johan Burger, who agreed that the police were losing the war on crime. He also put forward a solution to begin turning things around with local police. That solution? Appointing a reliable police commissioner.

“The police appoint one acting head after the other and crime intelligence in the past few years has become almost ineffective. We have seen a lot of instability in appointments.”

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has promised to eradicate crime, will he even get close?