The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) has condemned the killing of yet another police officer and has called for the increase in police attacks and killings to be urgently addressed.
National police spokesperson Brigadier Vishnu Naidoo confirmed to News24 that at about 05:00 on Monday a reserve constable was responding to a housebreaking call when he was shot and killed at Section H, Ekangala, in the district of Tshwane.
His identity cannot be revealed as his next of kin are yet to be informed of his death.
“The constable, together with another member (of the South African Police Service), was responding to a case of housebreaking in progress. As they arrived at the scene, suspects fired at police, killing the reserve constable,” said Naidoo.
The slain officer’s partner, a warrant officer, escaped unscathed. No arrests have been made at this point.
This latest incident comes hot on the heels of another attack on police officers in the area. A few weeks ago an officer and her detective husband were petrol-bombed in their home at night.
Police march
The female officer, who later succumbed to her injuries after being rushed to hospital, was a sergeant. Her husband survived the attack.
“Our members are continuously terrorised and killed by cold-blooded criminals due to the longstanding impasse of inadequate human and physical resources as they work under unsafe and understaffed conditions,” Popcru’s spokesperson Richard Mamabolo said.
He also raised the union’s dissatisfaction with the lack of capacity police officials have.
“South Africa has just below 200 000 police officers who are expected to keep a population of 57 million safe on a regular basis.
“We have on numerous occasions raised a grave concern on the fact that the SAPS’ (South African Police Service) human and physical resource allocation has been, and continues to be a deep-seated challenge with adverse effects to both police officers and the community at large.”
Popcru has planned a march to the Union Buildings on July 13 to call for the “restructuring of the South African Police Service in ensuring that we have more manpower and resources allocated at station level where criminal activities are taking place”.
Naidoo said he was not aware of the planned march, adding “it is against the police policies for members of the SAPS to take part in protest action, marches or demonstrations while on duty and in uniform”.