Deputy President Paul Mashatile plans to bolster the police force in the fight against crime.
South Africa will soon have more men and women in blue fighting the war against crime.
This was announced last Thursday, November 9, when Deputy President Paul Mashatile said government was “working around the clock” to capacitate the police force and ensure that the country has 30 000 new officers in the coming years.
Mr Mashatile was responding to questions in the National Assembly on Thursday.
“The police minister also announced that recruits are being enlisted to increase the capacity of the police in this regard. Ten thousand new trainees have already graduated and over the next financial years, additional trainees will graduate bringing the total number to 30 000 new police officers,” said Mr Mashatile.
He added that in addition, 1000 of the newly recruited personnel have been ring-fenced to include the capacity of public order policing (POP) which deals with crowd management issues and threats resulting from that.
The POP, he said, had by the end of October 2023 received an additional 4 000 members resulting from the recruitment drive. As part of efforts to assess the progress government is making in implementing its programmes, Deputy President Mashatile said he and President Cyril Ramaphosa had been meeting ministers, deputy ministers, director-generals and heads of departments.
“In this regard, the president and I have had the opportunity to meet with the deputy minister and commissioner of police to brief us on the departmental plans to fight crime in South Africa,” said Mr Mashatile.
“The ministry is implementing Operation Shanela, which is a comprehensive plan to combat crime throughout the country. The plan includes clamping down on illegal mining areas as well.”
He said the South African Police Service (SAPS) had established specialised units to work with businesses, private security and state-owned entities (SOEs) to tackle illegal mining, the construction mafia, cable theft and the vandalism of economic infrastructure.
“I have confidence not only in Minister Bheki Cele, Deputy Minister Cassel Mathale and Commissioner Fannie Masemola but in all men and women in blue right to the lowest-ranking police officers who are committed to fighting and defeating crime in our communities,” he said.
Mr Mashatile talked about the recently launched “Combating Crime through Decisive Police Action and Robust Community Involvement” and the operationalisation of the increased Crime Prevention and Combating Action Plans through Operation Shanela. These programmes, he said, were yielding results in the fight against crime in the country. He said they would continue to work jointly with the private sector to invest in efforts to combat crime.
“We urge communities to continue to be involved in efforts to fight crime. Communities must work with the police and expose the rotten apples within our police stations. Together we will win this fight. Let’s continue to build safer communities,” Mr Mashatile said.