An unlikely saviour and protector of our people has emerged in the past few days, and that is the taxi industry. Cynics may say that it is self-preservation with the taxi associations needing people to be employed and for shops and malls to exist to have a customer base.
It is, however, in the interests of all South Africans for there to be a tax base, which will surely dwindle and have dire effects on the payment of social grants and the development of critical infrastructure for many, many years to come.
When certain men find themselves unable to support their households, the frustration will be unleashed on their innocent partners and gender-based violence will likely increase.
We have to ask ourselves, why are taxi associations needed to protect malls? Why are citizens taking the law into their own hands, standing in CBDs with weapons and setting up roadblocks themselves? Personal and anonymous interviews with SAPS members reveal that they are scared of taking violent action even in self-defence since the Marikana incident, as they feel that they themselves will be sent to jail and will no longer be able to provide for their families.
Everyone in SA has a right to self-defence, but SAPS members live in fear of organisations like the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) to the extent that they cannot enforce the law. Certainly, Ipid means well but there has to be a meeting of the minds.
The members of SAPS caught looting must face the full might of the law as they have betrayed the public trust, but those who want to protect the people and the stability of this country must not be helpless to do so. The widespread looting, violence and social unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal has indicated that there is a serious problem that is facing SAPS across the country.
Jabulani Mall in Soweto is a stone’s throw away of 130m from the Jabulani police station. The looters cleaned out the mall, making several trips to and from the mall and their homes, carrying groceries and big appliances, yet the police did not notice what was happening.
This is unacceptable and evident that our police care little about their mandate to protect and enforce the law. In another incident in KZN, it took almost three days for the looters to clean out one of the biggest logistics distributors in that province.
While we understand that SAPS resources are stretched, one tends to question where the police were when all these incidents were happening.
There are also claims that in some areas where looting and violence was rife, the police had run out of rubber bullets to disperse the crowd, where SAPS resorted to sourcing rubber bullets from private security companies.
For the longest time, the DA has been calling for a total reform of the SAPS to ensure that there are honest and dedicated police officers committed to serving our communities. We have been calling for the following – to boost SAPS numbers by increasing the number of operational SAPS and volunteer corps, ensure that new SAPS members are appropriately trained, improve recruitment practices and ensure adequate resources for SAPS.
Had the current government listened to our call, this violence could have been curbed before causing severe damages. As I visit police stations, I am told of fewer vehicles being in service, not enough staff being available and extreme fatigue as leave has to be cancelled due to lack of personnel.
The prioritisation of government resources leaves much to be desired. South Africans are incredibly upset with the police at the best of times. Everyone has a story where a police vehicle arrived 30 minutes late or not at all to a crime scene that is a few minutes’ walk from the nearest police station.
We have witnessed our people taking the law into their own hands due to a severe lack of police visibility. Vigilante justice is not ideal, but when one is faced with a real threat to their home and belongings, survival instinct kicks in. South Africans do not deserve to resort to such tactics.
• Shackleton is MPL and DA Gauteng shadow MEC for community safety
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