Durban — SAPS national police commissioner General Fannie Masemola says police will continue to use force proportional to the threat.
Masemola said this in response to citizens and experts voicing their concerns about the number of suspects killed by police in KwaZulu-Natal.
Masemola was providing an update on countrywide policing operations and when highlighting KZN’s takedown operations.
On KZN takedown operations, Masemola said they have listened to ordinary citizens and experts within the field of policing about the number of suspects who have been shot and killed by police in KZN in recent months.
Speaking to the Daily News on Wednesday, KZN violence monitor Mary de Haas expressed concern over the increase in shoot-outs between criminals and police officers.
Masemola explained that the SAPS’s mandate is to bring perpetrators to justice by arresting them, but quite often in pursuit of arresting these often dangerous and heavily armed criminals, their police officers are more often than not met with heavy gunfire and that leaves their officers with no option but to defend themselves and the communities that they serve.
On Tuesday this week, police in KZN were tracing suspects who were linked and wanted in at least 13 cases of business robbery and carjacking in the Cato Manor and Durban Central policing precinct when they were met with gunfire. Five suspects were killed and no police officer was wounded in the attack.
Last week, police in the province shot and killed nine suspects in various incidents.
“In all these incidents, police were met with gunfire and various kinds of high-calibre firearms were seized including automatic rifles. All these suspects were wanted in connection with serious and violent crimes including murders, and ATM bombings,” Masemola said.
In the KwaDlangezwa incident in Empangeni, northern KZN, the three suspects who were shot dead were wanted and linked in connection with at least 10 cases of murder in the province.
“It is on this note that we urge criminals to surrender themselves when called to do so by police. If criminals carry water guns, we will also respond with shotguns, but when criminals fire with live ammunition, we have no choice but to defend ourselves and the communities that we serve. With this said, we will continue to use force that is proportional to the threat,” Masemola said.
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