source

Wyndham Hartley

13 November 2009

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Cape Town — President Jacob Zuma yesterday became the first South African head of state to acknowledge that crime in SA was the most violent in the world while justifying changes to the law on the use of lethal force in the National Assembly.

Opposition leaders who have made similar suggestions have been slapped down, particularly by former president Thabo Mbeki , who insisted that there was no qualitative difference between crime in SA and elsewhere in the world.

Zuma, responding during presidential question time to a query from Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler Barnard about the recent spate of civilians being shot by police, said that when dealing with crime it had to be noted that SA was different because of the violence that accompanied crime.

“Crime in SA is more violent than anywhere in the world. Here they kill,” Zuma said. He was speaking in the context of mooted changes to section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act, which governs how lethal force can be used by police and legally armed civilians.

Zuma was asked whether or not police were sufficiently well trained to make split-second decisions about when they could or could not use their firearms.

He said section 49 would be changed early next year but he was not aware of the content of the amendments. He stressed there was a need to fight crime and that it was clear that when South African criminals were cornered they killed to escape. At issue was a need to limit the number of police officers who were killed in the line of duty.

“None here in Parliament can refute that police are in a horrendous situation,” Zuma said.

When he addressed a meeting of police station commanders recently he did not give police licence to shoot outside the law, he said. He had told them the government was seeking to strengthen the hand of the police.

He also admitted that while police had been trained about the provisions of the law governing lethal force “that training needs to be improved”.

Section 49 at present provides that police may shoot in defence of themselves and others.

Also, if a suspect is reasonably suspected of committing serious violent crime, they can shoot to stop the suspect escaping. It is understood that the changes will be technical and there will be no wholesale ticket for police to shoot under any circumstances.

In response to a question on Zimbabwe, Zuma indicated that SA’s position was largely unchanged.

He said that problems between the parties in Zimbabwe would be engaged in terms of the mandate given to SA by the Southern African Development Community.