Police work is dangerous work. This can be seen in the number of police officers killed since the 2023 financial year began.
Last month, a policeman was shot dead and another injured in an incident in Ntuzuma, outside Durban, where four “criminals” were killed.
Last week, brazen gunmen stormed two jewellery stores at the Pavilion shopping centre in Durban, leaving one officer dead and others injured.
In both incidents, police minister Bheki Cele attended the crime scenes.
In the Ntuzuma incident, Cele said it was clear criminals have declared war not just on the police but on the community, including those involved in community policing forums.
“I am worried these groups sit down and plot against the police,” Cele said.
Who can forget an incident in Makhado in September when police shot and killed 19 suspected cash-in-transit robbers? Police approached the double-storey house intending to make arrests. They shot at the police, who retaliated. The shooting lasted 90 minutes. This shows the alleged criminals were heavily armed.
Cele later told Sunday Times that one police officer had to have a leg amputated after being shot.
“We have seen how they went against the cops in the shootings in Makhado and how criminals in Durban North, KwaMashu, Inanda and other places target and kill community members that are working with the police,” the minister said.
“There are drug gangs who are also killing people and some post videos of themselves polishing their guns. What are police supposed to do? Go in there without being fully prepared?”
The latest crime statistics show that 35 officers were killed on and off duty between July and September 2023.
Since the start of the financial year in April, 78 officers were killed.
This weekend, police top brass attended two funerals of police who were killed on duty.
Cele and deputy national commissioner Lt-Gen Tebello Mosikili, laid to rest Const Sphesihle Cele, a 26-year-old officer in his first year of service, who was shot and killed while on duty in KwaZulu-Natal.
The constable and his team members responded to a complaint of a man carrying a firearm inside a tavern in Empangeni on November 16. Constable Cele was shot at by the armed man and died on the scene. The shooter was then shot and killed by the police.
The minister at the funeral said criminals are daring. “This is why I will forever call on police to fight fire with fire, especially when their lives are threatened. No officer must ever die with a weapon in their hands.”
In Gauteng, deputy police minister Cassel Mathale and national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola led proceedings at the funeral service of the late Const Marven Maphoro. He was shot and killed on November 16, while responding to an ATM bombing at a filling station in Thembisa.
Popcru says officers are being singled out as targets for attacks for their firearms, which are later used to perpetuate further criminal activities.
Mathale urged police officers to use force proportional to the threat when under attack.
Police union Popcru, who protested last week outside the bail application of a man accused of killing an off-duty cop, says the apparent targeting of police officers, on or off duty, has inevitably increased police officers’ feelings of insecurity.
Popcru says officers are being singled out as targets for attacks for their firearms, which are used to perpetuate further criminal activities.
Already reeling from budget cuts that have reduced manpower and availability, the men and women in blue are under extreme pressure.
Police top brass might consider the possibility of police officers leaving their firearms in the relative safety of the police station, to prevent them from being targets when they are off duty.
The union says there is an urgent need to examine why the attacks on and killing of police members have continued at high levels, and to investigate what could be done to protect police.
Popcru says while the onus lies on the police to prevent, combat and investigate crime, communities have a role to play in flushing out crime, as the criminals committing these heinous acts come from the communities police serve.
They want police murders to be tried as treason for their impact on the state.
It is commendable to hear police management urge their members to use force proportionate to the attacks they face. It would also help if more training is provided to fight criminals who wield firearms.
It is comforting to hear Masemola assure police members that they will continue to receive capacity to respond to criminals and crime.
Anyone who takes out a firearm and shows an intent to shoot at the police should be shot at first. This might deter other criminals from thinking of engaging in a firearm battle with the police.
But the brazen attitude of criminal networks and their access to firepower is all too evident.
While recent clashes between police and syndicates, which resulted in at least 14 deaths of suspected criminals between September and October in KZN is evidence of this, it is clear the bad guys have no value for their own life or the men and women who protect our country.
The attacks on police should be treated as an attack against our nation, and perpetrators need to face the fullest might of the law.
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