Deputy Minister Shabangu: The quest for zero citizens

As a specialist criminal attorney, I would like to put Deputy Safety and Security Minister Susan Shabangu’s instructions to the police into some sort of context; translate it from the ill-considered idea that gave rise to the ridiculous orders and demonstrate how this would affect people in reality.

In essence, the minister has ordered the parties responsible for protecting the citizens of this country and maintaining law and order to shoot and kill criminals. Who would define who the criminals are, in the split-second it takes a police officer to murder them — for that is how the law would interpret this conduct — she doesn’t really say; merely that if anyone is to take the blame for carrying out her instructions, then it will be her.

Of course, anyone with a basic knowledge of the law knows that the person who would be held responsible for these actions would be the individual police officers concerned. The minister, however, if she is as good as her word, might want to take responsibility for trying to turn half the police force into criminals and resign — surely a mere formality in comparison with her offer of standing trial for umpteen murders.

On the ground, many police officers are daily confronted with situations requiring them to make instant judgement calls. As members of an organisation that places the emphasis on discipline and obeying orders, particularly from senior ranks, they would undoubtedly have taken the instructions from the deputy minister, who is after all their second-highest ranking official, very much to heart.

An order to shoot and kill criminals may even have been welcomed among many of the long-suffering members of President Thabo Mbeki’s finest. The fact that it ignores every instruction contained in the police guidelines on the use of excessive force, and contravenes the laws of the country governing the apprehension of suspects by the police or anybody else, seems to be neither here nor there.

The fact that it effectively turns the boys in blue to the boys covered in red as a result of being appointed judge, jury and executioner might well have been lost on the minister. She obviously also never considered the fact that by carrying out her unlawful instructions, police officers would turn into criminals, which, in light of her orders, would require other police officers to shoot them.

In addition, we then have the small problem of police officers bringing their considerable decision-making prowess to bear when electing who lives and who dies. Imagine being bust on your way out of an away game and finding out that the lady concerned is married to one of our boys in blue? Don’t buy any long-playing records or books over 20 pages.

While I admire the minister’s zeal and desire to clean up crime, I have to express some concern about her position in safety and security. Perhaps a less violent portfolio might be more appropriate.

I would conclude by advising the good citizens of our country to be a bit wary of the boys in blue for a couple of weeks. Give the news that the minister was misguided a chance to sink in before testing their patience.

Shoot criminals indeed! Why can’t they just take away their radios?