The KwaZulu-Natal government is introducing what it calls more “bold” measures to curb everything from murder to rape to aggravated assault and robbery in the province.
This includes launching crime-intelligence-driven operations, increasing police visibility, community involvement through crime ambassadors and smart apps, all before the end of February.
“KwaZulu-Natal is one of the areas of high stats of crime and incidents of mob justice, so we want the community to have a greater role and the solutions to crime fighting. We want to render [KwaZulu-Natal] a safe area,” KwaZulu-Natal premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said at a community meeting in Inanda, a township in eThekwini on Tuesday.
Police in KwaZulu-Natal have drawn praise and criticism about how the province has clamped down on criminals.
More than 100 suspects were killed in shootouts with police last year with critics saying the police were trigger happy, and supporters saying the action was justified.
Speaking to the media in defence of the police in KwaZulu-Natal last year, the province’s provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi said police were not trigger happy, but his message was not to “die with your weapons in your hands”.
The police’s KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson, Col Robert Netshiuanda, said on Wednesday that all that was happening was that the "basic principles of policing" were being applied.
According to the latest crime statistics SA’s murder, rape and aggravated assaults as well as robbery statistics had increased in recent years.
“The police will be even more operational but we expect the community to report any suspicion of crime, so that the police can act,” Ntuli added.
Business Day reported last year that Eskom chair Mteto Nyati and Reuel Khoza, his counterpart at Discovery Bank, hailed the response by senior KwaZulu-Natal police officials to violent crime in the province, saying their approach inspired confidence that there was no tolerance towards the crime.
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