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Such is the crime situation throughout the country that, according to World Population Review, South Africa ranks third out of the ten worst crime riddled countries globally.
It is worth noting that South Africa now holds a worse crime rate than war-torn Afghanistan and Nigeria.
Nevertheless, World Population Review states that South Africa holds a notably high rate of assault, rape, homicide, and other violent crimes, compared to most of the globe.
While many believe that the South African Police Service (SAPS) needs to do more, does the blame fall solely on the shoulders of the individual police stations?
Focussing on KwaZulu-Natal and looking at what each police officer has at their dispersal to do the job correctly, we begin to see that the higher-ups are leaving them hustling to get by. Thus, in a province polluted by a gangster mentality and skyrocketing crime stats—a sobering turnaround strategy is drastically needed, especially after recent findings.
This comes after the KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province’s permanent delegates to the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) recently focused on the capacity of the SAPS to fight crime. This included the state of police stations in township and rural areas and their resourcing in the province.
The delegation identified numerous challenges during their tour in the province. These challenges include:
- Office space being problematic in most police stations visited.
- In some stations, the delegation was told that gender-based-violence desk still needs to be established.
- The delegation heard there is a backlog on firearm license applications.
- The centralisation of services results in procurement delays even for minor procurement needs. This as the appointment of suppliers has to go through the Head Office in Pretoria, a step that renders the provision of services ineffective.
- A police station in Bellair was discovered to be facing issues with electricity, where corridors leading to the cells are always dark as the lights are not working in some of the areas of the station.
- The delegation also noted the concern regarding vehicles being sent in for repairs and taking months to be conducted.
This is an issue that the Newcastillian – Online News focused on during March 2022.
On top of this, the delegation found that many police stations do not have the required digital technology system in place. As a result, most services and other processes are conducted manually.
This assertion resonates with the statement made by Mornè Potgieter of Ithemba Security in an article published by the Newcastillian – Online News on 29 March 2022.
In the article, which focused on why the SAPS relied heavily on private security companies, Potgieter explained that security companies have more resources than the police often do, including technological tools.
Alongside other provincial delegations, they will table the report to the NCOP for consideration. The House will develop an action plan to ensure that the Executive addresses these challenges.
Moreover, KZN police spokesperson, Lieutenant Colonel Nqobile Gwala, explained that 9169 suspects were arrested for various crimes over the past month across the province.
When breaking this figure down, police managed to make the following arrests in KwaZulu-Natal in March 2022:
- 198 suspects arrested for murder.
- 157 for attempted murder.
- 291 for robberies.
- 259 for rape.
- 2033 for assault.
- 289 for burglary.
- 1568 suspects were arrested for drug-related crimes.
Large quantities of drugs such as possession of heroin, cocaine, ecstasy, crystal meth, and dagga were seized by police.
While this might seem like a positive impact on the fight against crime, according to the latest crime stats released by Police Minister Bheki Cele, 11 315 people were raped between October and December 2021. This works out to over 3 700 people being raped in South Africa daily, and KZN police only arrested 259 suspects?
Unless the government takes the relevant steps as soon as possible, Newcastillians will be relying more and more on the services of private security companies for safety.
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