Police commanders of highest crime rate areas summoned by Parliament

The commanders of the five police stations in the country dealing with the highest incidences of violent crimes have been summoned to appear before parliament’s portfolio committee of police on Tuesday.

The committee’s chairperson‚ Francois Beukman‚ said on Sunday it was critical that violent crime be addressed as the number one priority of the South African Police Service (Saps).

He said the committee had decided that the station commanders of Hillbrow‚ Johannesburg Central‚ Kagiso‚ Mitchells Plain and Nyanga police station should appear before the committee so that the current Saps strategy on combating contact crime could be evaluated.

"Murder‚ attempted murder‚ robbery and rape are the crimes that affect the safety of communities and the necessary strategic and operational measures should be taken to intervene in the top-five crime stations‚" Beukman said.

He said the committee had always emphasised that the police needed to act pro-actively to ensure that the stations had the necessary resources to deal with the crime profile in their area.

The Civilian Secretariat of Police had also been invited to brief the committee on the root causes contributing to the high crime rate in the affected areas‚ he added.

Some of the root causes contributing to contact crime, like a lack of social cohesion‚ poor environmental design of neighbourhoods‚ illegal liquor outlets‚ poor street lights‚ availability of illegal guns and the prevalence of gangs would also be under the spotlight.

"Dealing effectively with the root causes of contact crime is not only a police matter‚ but involves other spheres of government and civil society‚" Beukman said.

"The role of community police forums is vital to foster community participation in the fight against crime and the CPF chairs have also been invited to the meeting on Tuesday‚" he added.