Mbalula must convene summit on police killings: Sapu

The South African Policing Union (Sapu) wants police minister Fikile Mbalula to convene a national summit on police killings.

“The brutal and merciless killings of six police officials in Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape makes this call for a national summit an extremely urgent matter‚” Sapu general secretary Oscar Skommere said on Wednesday.

A gang of robbers allegedly attacked the station in the small town in the early hours. Six police officers and an off-duty soldier were murdered.

Police spokesman Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo said an unknown number of armed suspects entered the police station and started shooting at officers on duty.

Skommere believes criminals have “no respect for human life‚ let alone the government”. He took a stab at Mbalula’s “rhetoric statements that do not yield the desired results”.

“Harsh words of condemnation only will not curb the continued killings of our members‚” Skommere said. “If police officials are butchered like this in a police station‚ how safe are our people in the streets?”

Sapu welcomed the police and the Hawks establishing a task team to investigate the murders‚ but believe it is “not good enough”.

“The low rate of arrests in police killing cases and low conviction rate is a major cause for concern.”

He also criticised the lack of security at police stations. “This Ngcobo police station does not even have a gate. In most police stations there are no metal detectors‚ no CCTV cameras.”