No place for criminals in SA, Phiyega

Phiyega has warned that communities will lose confidence in police if they are unable to protect them from criminals

The national police commissioner, General Riah Phiyega, is determined to ensure that there are no crime hotspots anywhere in South Africa.

In an exclusive interview with The Weekly, during the opening of a multi-million rand police station in Sasolburg last week Tuesday, Phiyega said her mission is to ensure that South Africans do not live in fear of criminals.

This follows her visit to a criminal hotspot in the Zamdela township near Sasolburg. The area is known to be a haven of all types of crimes including, rape, murder and robbery.

Phiyega stressed that it was high time that police, in collaboration with the community, take back their streets from criminals.

“It’s unacceptable to have such areas because it proves that we cannot control and manage crime, however, I am impressed with how dedicated is our police officers are here. They have made progress in ensuring that culprits are convicted.”

She warned that the communities will lose confidence in the police if there are so-called criminal hotspots in their areas.

“Our society knows very well what we are here for, and if we can’t provide safety for them soon they take law into their own hands. We call on communities not to the take law into their own hands but work with police in the fight against crime.”

Colonel Festus Baloyi told Phiyega that the police have dealt with a high number of murder and robbery cases that were perpetrated by youth gangs in Zamdela.
Baloyi said most of the perpetrators are from the Gauteng province.

“We are sharing borders with Gauteng and it is a challenge because criminals commit crimes here and go hide in Gauteng or vise-a-versa. However, we have the profiles of our local criminals and it has become easy for us to link them to crimes.

“It is still a challenge to us because at some point we catch suspects and witnesses are reluctant to come forward and testify,” said Baloyi.

Phiyega was pleased by the fact that police were cracking the criminal syndicates in the area.

“I have been telling everyone where I have been that, every victim of crime gets happy when cops come with the measures to prevent what happened to him from not repeating itself to the other person. If this area is a hot spot of rape those raped here wants to see cops patrolling this area; the same with those who were hijacked.”

She said it was time for police to take charge of the streets of this country:

“I need to be convinced of solutions instead of problems that we are facing. Cops are solving the problems and the only problem which must be solved is crime. If we can’t do it why do we wear the blue attire with pride? Policing is about providing safety to citizens.”

Baloyi promised Phiyega that he is going to strengthen the sector policing by giving each sector a vehicle so they can easily patrol the crime hotpots.

“We are going to ensure that we have a unique vehicle that will patrol the area and we are going to renew our relationship with the public, we now that public gets annoyed when one resident gets killed or robbed, we plead to them not to take law into their own hands.”

He pleaded with local authorities to install high mass lights to curb crime in the area.

“I want to call on Mayor (Brutus) Mahlaku, to ensure that they install high mass lights in all the areas because they help us,” he added. Phiyega challenged the Zamdela police to reduce murder rates in the area.

“I urge you my colleagues to reduce crime, especially death rates as compared to the last years, its Christmas time and we can’t afford to lose the residents to criminals,” she said.

Nthabiseng Mohotlwane said she was impressed with the visit of the national police commissioner.

“It’s good to have her here I believe she will over see that the area is patrolled 24/7,” said Mohotlwane whose daughter was recently robbed in the Amelia section of the township.