KZN is in deep trouble if the police don’t get resources

THE murder of innocent citizens in Desai township, Mariannhill, continues unabated – and the police are keeping mum about it.

On Tuesday night, a ward 13 committee member was shot and killed in the Desai area, and the killers are still at large.

In its response to the ongoing killing in the province, the IFP wrote a statement in which it said political will is key in addressing the crime rate in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).

In the police minister’s report on crime statistics on Tuesday, uMlazi and Inanda were named as the most crime-ridden areas in eThekwini.

According to the portfolio committee on police on Tuesday, violent crimes increased by 4% between January and March this year when compared to the same period last year.

Furthermore, third-quarter crime statistics released by Police Minister Bheki Cele revealed that Inanda, uMlazi and KwaMashu police stations were among those with the highest recorded numbers of murder and rape cases nationally.

The IFP said that this was the time for the province to have a police force that would be able to fight crime according to the needs of the people.

“What plans have been put in place to fight the scourge of crime in uMlazi, Inanda and KwaMashu?” asked the IFP.

It said political will was vital if the KZN MEC for Community Safety and Liaison, Sipho Hlomuka, and the KZN provincial police commissioner, Lieutenant-General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, are to reduce the devastating spate of killings in the province.

It said they need to go back to the drawing board and find out what works and what does not – helping the police find the root cause of crime and strategies to eradicate it.

They must adopt an extraordinary operational approach to stabilise this wave of murders, which must be followed by a normalisation approach.

The way things are going, it is becoming evident that KwaZulu-Natal is in a crisis.

To fight this scourge, the police need vehicles, modern and sophisticated working equipment, communications facilities, modern weapons, and enough fuel for police vehicles to move about with ease, doing patrols and ensuring police visibility, which must be available 24 hours a day.