Citizen Online
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
JOHANNESBURG - Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula on Tuesday repeated his stance that action would only be taken against national police Commissioner Jackie Selebi based on concrete evidence.
"It will only be on the basis of concrete evidence that we will be able to do anything... in the absence of that we are not going to do witch hunting," he told the National Community-Police Consultative Forum in Midrand.
He said Selebi's friendship with Glenn Agliotti, recently arrested in connection with the murder of the mining magnate Brett Kebble, could also not be used to suspend Selebi.
"We can't act simply because people are saying they are friends. That means that everywhere we must look at the friendships that people have."
He said their relationship would only warrant investigation based on evidence of wrongdoing.
Turning his attention to cash-in-transit heists, Nqakula had harsh words for the owners of security companies. He called on them to provide better safety for their employees.
"The poor guards are driving vehicles that are not reinforced. Those business people have money, why are they not reinforcing those vehicles? Why are those companies not training people adequately and providing them with high-calibre weapons?" He said while police were willing to help train guards, arming them was the responsibility of their employers. There were also efforts under way to amend the Private Security Industry Regulatory Act to set minimum safety standards.
Many cash heists were inside jobs, he said. "Some of those companies have been infiltrated." Nqakula cited a case where a woman working for a security company had been linked to 11 robberies. "All she does is switch off the alarm to allow those criminals to go in."
"We need to evolve a system where we need to vet people working in crucial industries," he said.
He called for greater community involvement in crime fighting as 80 percent of it, so-called social crime, happened in places common to both victims and perpetrators and were connected to substance abuse. He said in such cases police would always be reactive. "We in the community have a responsibility to make interventions," he said.
The other 20 percent of the country's crime, and which was the sole responsibility of the police to stop, was organised and included cash-in-transit heists.
While cash heists had increased by 74 percent in the past year, according to figures released in September, he played down their part in the bigger crime picture.
"They are few compared to the rest (of crimes in South Africa)."
There were 163 more heists in the year to September, bringing the total to over 300.
He said there was no need to declare a state of emergency over the levels of crime in the country. Since 1995 crime levels had "very consistently" been going down.
Nqakula admitted that levels of serious and violent crime were still "unacceptably high" but said these were on the decrease. Rates of crimes except murder, rape and indecent assault had been brought down by a targeted seven to 10 percent annually.
He also called for an investigation into claims that Ekurhuleni metro police chief Robert McBride shot at protesting municipal employees on Sunday. He expressed concern over claims of tensions between McBride and officials in his department.
"Of course we are concerned when people who are supposed to work jointly have conflict among themselves." - Sapa.