At least 10 police stations in the Cape Peninsula and Stellenbosch have been fitted with panic buttons linked to armed response security companies in the past few months. This protection has been installed at Claremont, Hout Bay, Stellenbosch, Table View, Sea Point, Maitland, Camps Bay, Simon's Town, Fish Hoek and Durbanville. Grassy Park police station is guarded by a private company. Sea Point police station has a closed-circuit television system that is monitored by a security firm.
Although the new security arrangements - provided free - embarrass police, they are not without benefit. Two Sundays ago, a policeman at Sea Point used a panic button to call for help after three alleged gang rapists overpowered him and snatched his gun. Luckily, he had removed the pistol's magazine before entering the alleged rapists' cell for a routine, early-morning inspection. The four police on duty at the time were soon joined by a patrol from an armed response company and the attackers were returned to their cell. Another security firm has a contract to post guards with the Flying Squad in Pinelands.
In Hout Bay, where police do not have a proper police station, residents recently launched a non-profit company, Blues Buddies, to finance a private police service. Police and armed response firms are also jointly monitoring emergency radio services as part of growing co-operation between private sector and police, who say they are understaffed and under-resourced. Provincial Community Safety Minister Mark Wiley has described the situation as a "most unsatisfactory practice" and he is asking Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete to visit the Western Cape to see for himself the impact of staff shortages and threats to police.
Coming after several daring raids on police stations and the bombing of some, the new security arrangements are meant to discourage criminal gangs and urban terrorists from seeing police stations as easy sources of weapons or cash. However, some of the police stations that are linked to security firms had their systems installed before high-profile attacks. This year, five policemen have been murdered - four of them on duty - in the Western Cape. Since the beginning of the year, there have been a number of attacks on Cape Town police.
- January 3: five armed, masked men strolled through a broken gate at Claremont police station at 3am, locked up police officers and escaped with weapons, radios and bulletproof vests.
- January 14: top Pagad investigator Benny Lategan was ambushed and killed on the R300.
- January 28: six people were injured when a bomb exploded outside the central police station at Caledon Square during lunch hour.
- February 19: Pagad investigator Schalk Visagie was shot and seriously wounded on the M5.
- March 9: a masked gang of seven grabbed 12 guns, ammunition and two radios in a raid on Stellenbosch police station in Bird Street.
- May 9: a car bomb exploded outside Athlone police station. Children in nearby backyards were hit by glass fragments.
- June 6: three armed men tied up a policeman at Harare police station in Khayelitsha and stole three guns and 18 rounds of ammunition.
Mr Wiley said: "It is a sad day in any country if the police must be reliant on the handouts of others to ensure their (own) safety."
Source: IoL
Showing posts with label Tshwete. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tshwete. Show all posts
Monday, June 28, 1999
Tshwete's 'ruthless' anti-crime plan
The game's up - that was the message from Safety and Security Minister Steve Tshwete to criminals today as he spelled out to Parliament a "ruthless" crackdown on crime. The strategy hammered out includes roadblocks, cordoned-off areas and search operations. And there is a plan for an FBI-style agency to probe serious crime.
Tshwete said the past five years had been spent formulating strategies against crime and amalgamating various police forces inherited from the apartheid past. "What is required now is a ruthless implementation of that plan as a matter of urgency. We are ready, more than ever before, not just to send a message to criminals out there about our intentions, but more importantly to make them feel that 'die tyd vir speletjies in nou verby' (the time for play is over)," Tshwete said."In the process, ordinary law-abiding citizens might be inconvenienced and we would like to appeal to them to understand why we are stepping up this kind of action." He said the Government was adopting an inter-departmental approach to fighting crime.
The ministers of justice and constitutional development, safety and security, correctional services and home affairs would meet once a fortnight to draw up reports for the Cabinet on the progress of the battle and co-operate in investigating cases. This committee will involve the national Directorate of Public Prosecutions in the investigation of a crime and its successful presentation to the courts.
Tshwete said plans were under way to establish a structure to investigate priority crimes announced by President Thabo Mbeki during his address to Parliament last week. He said the structure would be similar to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) in the United States. He was confident they would be able to report to the president on this structure in less than two weeks. "The new structure will focus - with the back-up of highly skilled personnel, effective equipment, adequate resources - on crime intelligence-gathering, investigation and prosecution of persons and groups committing or involved in priority crimes," Tshwete said.
On Friday Mbeki listed such areas as Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town, Inanda in KwaZulu Natal and Katlehong in Gauteng as having the highest concentrations of crime in South Africa. He said multi-disciplinary intervention would be implemented to reduce the levels of crime in these areas. Tshwete told Parliament on Monday that such operations had already begun.
Source: IoL
Tshwete said the past five years had been spent formulating strategies against crime and amalgamating various police forces inherited from the apartheid past. "What is required now is a ruthless implementation of that plan as a matter of urgency. We are ready, more than ever before, not just to send a message to criminals out there about our intentions, but more importantly to make them feel that 'die tyd vir speletjies in nou verby' (the time for play is over)," Tshwete said."In the process, ordinary law-abiding citizens might be inconvenienced and we would like to appeal to them to understand why we are stepping up this kind of action." He said the Government was adopting an inter-departmental approach to fighting crime.
The ministers of justice and constitutional development, safety and security, correctional services and home affairs would meet once a fortnight to draw up reports for the Cabinet on the progress of the battle and co-operate in investigating cases. This committee will involve the national Directorate of Public Prosecutions in the investigation of a crime and its successful presentation to the courts.
Tshwete said plans were under way to establish a structure to investigate priority crimes announced by President Thabo Mbeki during his address to Parliament last week. He said the structure would be similar to the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) in the United States. He was confident they would be able to report to the president on this structure in less than two weeks. "The new structure will focus - with the back-up of highly skilled personnel, effective equipment, adequate resources - on crime intelligence-gathering, investigation and prosecution of persons and groups committing or involved in priority crimes," Tshwete said.
On Friday Mbeki listed such areas as Mitchell's Plain in Cape Town, Inanda in KwaZulu Natal and Katlehong in Gauteng as having the highest concentrations of crime in South Africa. He said multi-disciplinary intervention would be implemented to reduce the levels of crime in these areas. Tshwete told Parliament on Monday that such operations had already begun.
Source: IoL
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