The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) says the South African Police Service (SAPS) needs to re-inforce its crime intelligence division in order to stop brazen attacks by organised crime syndicates.
In the most recent incident this week, five police officers and a retired soldier were killed by unknown gunmen during an attack at the Ngcobo police station in the Eastern Cape.
In another incident in Gauteng, a police officer was shot dead in his sleep at his home in Pretoria. While on the very same day, three suspected robbers were shot dead after they opened fire on police at the Northgate Shopping Centre, North-West of Johannesburg.
Daring and sophisticated criminal syndicates are now operating in South Africa, without any fear. These fearless gangs, rooted in organised crime, operate on an almost daily basis, leaving behind a trail of destruction, claiming the lives of innocent civilians and police officers.
During the 2016/2017 financial year, at least 57 police officers were killed in the line of duty as a result of such criminals. Senior researcher and consultant for the Institute for Security Studies Johan Burger, says the reason such organised syndicates are thriving is due to the deterioration in the SAPS crime intelligence.
“Generally speaking especially the polices ability to generate crime intelligence has deteriorated to the extent that criminals no longer fear to be identified and prosecuted so that creates space for organised criminal groups to act almost freely throughout the country so to fix this will mean that the police will have to find a way to quickly re-establish their crime intelligence capability,” he said.
In South Africa, organized crime is ranked from level one to five. Five, being your smaller gangs who target small items such as cell phones and laptops. And number one being your high level, extremely sophisticated syndicates who specialise in cash in transit robberies, kidnapping and extortion, as well as drugs trafficking. Burger says the state of the country’s crime intelligence has dropped so drastically that in the last five years, violent crimes have increased by an alarming 40%.
“We are talking about a very complex problem that exists in South Africa at the moment where generally speaking levels of violence, public violence, and criminal violence have increased dramatically over the last number of years. Criminal violence especially aggravated robbery in all its various forms such as cash in transit robberies, house robberies, business robberies, car hi-jackings and so forth have increased over five years about forty percent.”
The SAPS crime intelligence division was left without a permanent chief of Staff for the last seven years. This after crime intelligence boss Lieutenant-General Richard Mdluli was suspended in 2011.
His suspension was due to charges brought against him of intimidation, kidnapping, assault and murder. This relates to the murder of his girlfriend’s alleged lover Oupa Ramogibe in 1999. The long running trial is yet to be concluded at the High Court in Johannesburg. Mdluli was only just relieved of his position last month after a mutual agreement between himself and Police Minister Fikile Mbalula. The Ministry of Police says a permanent head of crime intelligence will soon be appointed. Spokesperson Vuyo Mhaga says they hope that this will stabilize the division and get it back on the right track…
“Well you will appreciate that one of the things the minister complained about when he arrived was the crime intelligence and we have been trying to turn around that unit for some time now and you will know that the former general of crime intelligence Richard Mdluli had actually left so we are basically trying to stabilize in a short space of time we will be able to have a permanent head their that will be able to give a strategic direction and to reverse crime intelligence to the level that it is supposed to be at. So we are quite happy with the progress we have made and we know there is some movement that we are doing around it.”
In South Africa, organized crime dates back more than 100-years, where gangs of robbers were considered organised criminals due to them regularly committing crimes in large groups. However, up until very recently, police have managed to intercept and bring to book many of the high playing syndicates. This was when the SAPS crime intelligence division was operating optimally. Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) says a restructuring of the SAPS top brass is the only way to stabilize the police force.
Popcru spokesperson Richard Mamabolo says communities have to also work closely with police to ensure a decrease in the levels of crime.
“We believe that through restructuring the SAPS to ensure that the many police officers that are there at the top come down will actually give more effect to police to ensure that we deal with crime more intensively. And the other thing is that I think crime is not only a police issue alone as people would like to treat it. We would obviously need partnerships to ensure we become more effective so we want to urge communities to come on board and let’s work together in fighting crime.”
The Institute for Security Studies says while there’s a lot more work to be done to reduce brazen syndicate crime in the country, it needs to start with firm leadership within the SAPS crime intelligence division.
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