SOUTH AFRICAN POLICING SNIPPETS: 17 FEBRUARY 2024
By Chris Botha
CRIME STATS
We have reported (in the September 2023 issue of The Compassionate Confronter) that 75 people per day were reportedly killed in South Africa during the second quarter of reporting on crime statistics (1 July to 30 September 2023). According to the latest crime statistics, released by the Minister of Police on Friday 16 February 2024, 7710 people were killed during the third quarter of reporting (1 October to 31 December 2023). This means that 84 people (83.8 to be exact) were killed every day during the three months covered, indicating an ominous rise in killings.
By comparison, we reported (also in the September 2023 issue) that 16,6 people were killed on average per day in the Russia/Ukraine conflict. The eNCA news bulletin on DStv channel 144 (31 January 2024, 19:00) reported 230 deaths per day in the Israel/Hamas conflict.
LESUFI DEPLOYS CRIME PREVENTION WARDENS (CPWs) ILLEGALLY, SAYS RESEARCHER
David Bruce, Independent Researcher and ISS Consultant, finds that the deployment of Gauteng Province’s Crime Prevention Wardens (CPWs) are illegal. The CPW initiative is widely linked in the public domain to the Premier of that Province, Panyaza Lesufi. Bruce also points out that the recruitment process for the initial 3 200 CPWs were “rushed”, and that the Province has not “given forethought to how it will develop and manage the CPWs, or whether it has the organisational capacity and infrastructure to run a policing agency of this size”. In addition, writes Bruce, “the provision of training for the CPWs has been ad hoc”, and that “the latest batch of 1785 recruits is being trained by the South African National Defence Force – which lacks the experience to train the police”. The Gauteng government has, according to Bruce, indicated that it intends to arm the CPWs but the “Gauteng government’s lack of capacity to train CPWs in firearm use exposes the public to danger from poorly trained ‘police’”.
Readers can read more about this at https://defenceweb.co.za/security/civil-security/only-sas parliament-can-authorise-new-armed-police-bodies/ (accessed 16 February 2024), and may find the comparison to the Law Enforcement Advancement Plan (LEAP) initiative of the City of Cape Town (with financial support from the Western Cape provincial government) useful.
SOUTH AFRICAN INTRODUCED THE VALUE OF INTELLIGENCE TO THE POLICE OF FIJI
The Fiji Times reported on 14 February 2024 about the necessity to have intelligence in every police investigation. According to this report Mr Henry Brown, former Fiji police head of intelligence and investigations remarked that “intelligence is a very key component of investigations” and also “You cannot have investigations without intelligence”. Mr Brown credits former Fiji Police Commissioner Ben Groenewald with the creation of a separate intelligence and investigations capacity for the police in Fiji, and with his (Brown’s) appointment in the post. Readers can read about this article at:
https://www.fijitimes.com.fj/intelligence-a-very-key-component-of-investigations-former-officer/ (accessed 15 February 2024).
Editor’s note
There is an interesting South African angle to this story. “Commissioner Ben Groenewald” is a retired South African Police Service (SAPS) commissioned officer. Major General BJJ (“Ben”) Groenewald (SOEG SOE) joined the former South African Police (SAP) during late 1967, served in several functional and staff posts in both the SAP as well as the later SAPS, wrote all his police promotion examinations, obtained a Bachelors as well as an Honours degree in Police Science from Unisa, and retired on retirement date during early 2010 after more than 40 years of service in organised policing in South Africa. He was appointed as the Commissioner of Police for Fiji on 14 May 2014 and completed his service there during November 2015. The reader can read about Gen Groenwald’s sojourn in Fiji in The Nongqai (Vol 14 No 8B, August 2023) which is available for free on the SA Mirror and ISSUU platforms of the Worldwide Web
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