The Gauteng Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Community Safety has condemned the recent attack on SAPS members by a group of residents in Eden Park, Ekurhuleni.
The incident that was captured on video which is currently circulating on various social media platforms depicts members of the community insulting and attacking SAPS members who were dressed in full Police uniform in in the area.
This unfortunate incident once again exposes the extreme lawlessness that currently prevails in Gauteng and the country at large as an attack on Police officers demonstrates the highest order of undermining the rule of law.
The Committee condemns this behaviour in the strongest possible terms as there can never be any justifiable reason to assault a Police Officer especially when they are on duty.
Any attack on a Police Officer is tantamount to an attack on the State and the Committee urges Law Enforcement Agencies to move with speed to ensure that those who are responsible for this horrendous crime get to face the full might of the law.
Allegations are that the Police Officers were in the area to collect bribes from drug dealers and might have also been highly intoxicated themselves. An allegation which the Committee takes very seriously.
The Committee has therefore resolved to write to the Provincial Police Commissioner requesting for a report on the incident and should it be found that these Police Officers were involved in any wrong doing, the Committee will request the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to probe the matter and ensure that these Officer get to account for their behaviour.
If these Officers are found to be guilty, they should be stripped off their badges and a serious example should be made out of them by sending them to prison for a very long time.
The Committee has overtime noticed a trend in the rise of vicious and senseless crimes in the Province, threatening the freedoms of Gauteng residents and that of South Africans at large.
As a result, the Committee will continuously hold Law Enforcement Agencies in the Province accountable on these high levels of crime and further calls for more stringent measures to be put in place to curb the rising levels of lawlessness in Gauteng.
The Committee is currently considering holding a Provincial wide dialogue on what are the best practical measures that can be put in place to fight crime in Gauteng as some of the measures currently being put in place are not producing the necessary and required results.
Lastly, the Committee would like to urge residents of Gauteng to refrain from taking the law into their own hands, but to report any form of crime to Law Enforcement Agencies whether the crime is Committed by a Police Officer or an ordinary member of the Public.
Should anyone not feel safe to report any crime to Law Enforcement Agencies, the doors of the Committee are always open and any member of the public may report a crime to the Committee.
This will be treated with the utmost confidentiality and followed up thoroughly with Law Enforcement Agencies who are by law accountable to the Committee.
