Azra Hoosen | ah@radioislam.co.za
6 September 2024 | 15:00 CAT
3 min read

Police actions in KZN are stirring both praise and concern. Many citizens laud Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi for cracking down on criminals with deadly force. However, this aggressive approach, leading to a string of fatal police shootings, has sparked debate over potential extrajudicial killings and the need for rigorous oversight.

Mkhwanazi defends his strategy, calling the police the last line of defence.

“We (the police) are the last line of defence between good and bad in this country. We have to protect citizens. So we have to lay our lives down for them. If it means criminals must die, so be it. If it means we must die, so be it,” says Mkhwanazi.

Gareth Newham, Head of Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, told Radio Islam that certainly the police are facing significant challenges in dealing with armed groups involved in murders, rapes, and other violent crimes. “This shows us that the police have reached a point where they feel they need to take serious action, but this needs to be within the law. Legally, it is clear If the police come under fire, and they feel their lives are under threat, they have every right to use lethal force, meaning firearms to protect themselves or defend the lives of others,” he said.

Newham pointed out that many of these police operations typically occur late at night or in the early morning hours. What stands out in recent incidents is the unusually high number of people killed in a single police operation. In one case, only three firearms were recovered, raising questions about whether all those who were killed posed a direct threat to the police.

He stressed the need for police to focus on building public trust. “If the public trusts you then they will be more likely to cooperate and provide support and see you as a service to the community. If the public doesn’t trust you, you have a situation in which people disobey the law, and turn to other informal armed groups for support when they get into conflict and then police don’t get the information they need,” he said.

Newham highlighted that when such incidents occur, they open themselves up to scrutiny. In South Africa, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) is legally mandated to investigate all deaths resulting from police action or in custody. However, it is severely under-resourced and not functioning effectively.

“There should be some kind of dedicated task time, firstly to ensure the police are acting within the law and assure the public and secondly ensure the police are not putting themselves in undue risk and to protect the public, we do see innocent bystanders being killed, so you want to make sure you mitigate those risks,” he said.

An additional sign of police failure is the high cost of civil claims against the SAPS, primarily related to wrongful arrests. In the 2022/23 period, nearly R650 million was paid out to victims of unlawful police actions through these claims.

“We haven’t seen any kind of independent review of what is going on. We have a huge challenge as well with police corruption. Until we start seeing real movement on this because for years now, the ministry has not done much to ensure police uphold the disciplinary system, that system has really declined chronically, and the ability to remove corrupt cops has been very weak, so you have corrupt people still in the police,” he said.

Newham highlighted that many people have little to no trust in the police.

“People are very happy to see the police taking action against dangerous criminals making their lives hell in KZN, but at what point do you start saying, well, do we have to wait till the police hit the wrong house and kill a whole lot of children by accident before we take action,” he questioned.

Newham argues that this approach doesn’t effectively reduce crime in the long term. While it may seem like a popular, temporary solution due to public frustration with crime, it doesn’t address the root issues. “If it really worked, we would be seeing significantly lower crime rates,” he noted, emphasising the need to consider the type of society being shaped by such actions.

“If killing people made us safer, we should be much safer, but it doesn’t; it leads to a whole range of very negative outcomes; that’s why we have the rule of law, but we need to make our criminal and justice system work,” he said.

LISTEN to the full interview with Ml Junaid Kharsany and Gareth Newham, the Head of Justice and Violence Prevention at the Institute for Security Studies, here.