SHOOT TO KILL IS A CHEAP WAY TO FIX A DILAPIDATED CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM
Towards the end of last year South Africa introduced the ‘Shoo to Kill’ policy championed by the Deputy Minister of Police Fikile Mbalula.
Trigger-happy SAPS has been told by the Minister of Police to ‘Shoot to kill’
The Wild West movie-style crime ‘shoot to kill’ antic and the desire to lynch suspects or perpetrators, show government’s lack of understanding of the root causes of crime prevalence rate. Weak politicians, lazy bureaucrats and incompetent criminal justice system technocrats are running to populist sloganeering instead of facing the challenge head-on. This happens at the expense of proper structural inspection and analysis.
The behaviour of government leadership indicates that the high crime rate problem is not understood. High crime rate is a symptom of a failed society. The problem lies in the exclusion of African cultural ethos in the regulatory framework. At the core of this crisis is the collapse of previously resilient African culture. It is sparked by the big gap between the haves and have not’s, which is different from poverty. The problem is fueled by endemic corruption and sustained by inherent flaws in the criminal justice system.
There are three braches in the current system. The police with a mandate to prevent investigate crime and charging suspects. The courts have the responsibility to listen and decide on crime. The prisons have to hold and prepare criminals for reintegration to society. All this subsystems have failed in their mandate due inept management and
weak leadership. There are enough financial resources but crisis is lack of will and competency to combat crime effectively.
The Wild West movie-style crime ‘shoot to kill’ antic and the desire to lynch suspects or perpetrators, show government’s lack of understanding of the root causes of crime prevalence rate. Weak politicians, lazy bureaucrats and incompetent criminal justice system technocrats are running to populist sloganeering instead of facing the challenge head-on. This happens at the expense of proper structural inspection and analysis.
The behaviour of government leadership indicates that the high crime rate problem is not understood. High crime rate is a symptom of a failed society. The problem lies in the exclusion of African cultural ethos in the regulatory framework. At the core of this crisis is the collapse of previously resilient African culture. It is sparked by the big gap between the haves and have not’s, which is different from poverty. The problem is fueled by endemic corruption and sustained by inherent flaws in the criminal justice system.
There are three braches in the current system. The police with a mandate to prevent investigate crime and charging suspects. The courts have the responsibility to listen and decide on crime. The prisons have to hold and prepare criminals for reintegration to society. All this subsystems have failed in their mandate due inept management and
weak leadership. There are enough financial resources but crisis is lack of will and competency to combat crime effectively.
The police service is full of cowards. The cowards within management fear to attract required professionals in the organization. They are scared of competition for their next rank promotion. This result in weak technocratic layer of support. Members acquire technocratic skills already channeled on antic-policing methodologies. All police stations have small percentage of detectives and large number of muscles with limited brains. The failure to take statement properly and reluctance to open case is evidence of a failed recruitment system. The allocation of resource smells of unequal apartheid era resource deployment strategy. The criminals are based in low resource area but operate across society.
belligerence or sabre-rattling can’t be a substitute for good policing. the deputy minister of police, who upstages his political superior, once told members of the media in Cape Town that it was inevitable that innocent members of the public are going to die when the police are exchanging fire with criminals. this is a reckless statement which was not well thought-out. it is like throwing out the baby with the bath water. this country is paying police officers poorly. given the prevailing state of affairs, the department won’t attract skilled professional civil servants and on the other hand elected officials get fat cheques. if elected officials could be paid according to their level of education then professional people would join in nunbers and improve the police service. how can that be when there are criminals in parliament who have swept the arms deal corruption under the carpet? the chairman of SCOPA himself a thug who stole more than 40 PAC seats, was given that position to steal PAC seats. he can’t do anything to get the rotten-to-the-core arms deal case investigated.
Excellent piece!! Keep it up!!