By Akani Nkuna
THE Police Ministry and the South African Police Service (SAPS) will hold several meetings this month to get buy-in from provincial and local government to integrate resources to fight crime in the country.
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, who addressed the National Assembly on Tuesday, said that the cooperative agreements included an operational plan that would eventually be rolled out to the country’s eight metros.
The ministry and police have already signed off on an operational plan with the City of Cape Town to combat crime. It includes working with the city’s police, private security companies and community policing forums.
Mchunu told MPs that Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, the Western Cape and the Eastern Cape were currently responsible for 73% of the crime in the country. However, extortion had reached new levels throughout South Africa.
Communities were “angry, bitter and agitated,” he said.
While the police needed to play their part, the minister acknowledged that the reality was that people often turned to crime because of poverty or chose not to work.
“People who commit these crimes are individuals who… do not work… They are often armed and operating in groups…,” the minister said.
Mchunu, who mainly focused on actions taken by the police to address extortion threats in the country, said that the SAPS was hard at work fighting extortionist who had no moral compass and instilled fear and chaos in communities. Therefore, people were afraid to turn them in.
He said the police were also seeing “shocking levels of the lowest morality” where family functions such as church services and funerals were being disrupted by extortionists.
Another example was extortionists targeting Road Accident Fund beneficiaries and pensioners in the Free State.
In Cape Town, recent intelligence operations identified suspects as extortionists. A shootout ensued with police and four criminals were killed, four were admitted to hospital and two escaped.
Combatting extortion required more crime intelligence operations, Mchunu said.
Besides Cape Town, Nelson Mandela Bay and the Eastern Cape have agreed on the operational plan and it will be launched soon. The metro and province are targeting crimes including the illegal occupation of buildings and stock theft.
Mchunu plans on meeting the Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal governments about the programme later this month.
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