The past few weeks have been eventful for police minister Bheki Cele and police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola who have been moving from Diepsloot to Kliptown to put out fires fanned by communities who have grown tired of crime.
In Diepsloot, it took violent protests by residents who accused illegal foreigners of being behind a wave of crime in the area to finally get the attention of the police top brass. The community accused the government of allowing Diepsloot to be taken over by criminals with no police visibility or crime-fighting resources at the police station.
Cele and the police management's response, albeit too little too late for the family of Elvis Nyathi who was killed by a vigilante mob, was to bring 16 patrol vehicles and a team of detectives to investigate a string of murder cases reported in the area.
This week it was the turn for residents of Kliptown to get a visit from Cele and police top brass following the death of Kgomotso Vincent Diale who was killed when Operation Dudula and residents marched to an informal settlement they accused of its inhabitants being behind continuous power outages due to cable theft.
Cele committed the office of the national commissioner of police would provide 10 new vehicles to Kliptown police station to help fight crime in the area. He also said a team of 12 detectives would deal with cases of attempted murder and the murder of Diale after the shootings.
Both these instances highlight the good and the bad about police management's response to crime. On the one end it could be argued Cele's visit to the areas plagued by community unrest is indicative of a responsive government to people's cries. However on the other hand it points to the haphazard nature of response to crime – a perennial problem for many communities.
The efforts to throw some resources at crime problems in both Diepsloot and Kliptown are akin to applying a band-aid to a festering wound. Even more worrying is this approach to dealing with the problem of crime and community uprisings is simply unsustainable. The police top brass have previously complained bitterly about budget cuts which have impacted efforts to fight crime.
It will not be long before the situation implodes elsewhere when other residents copy those in Diepsloot and Kliptown. The answer to the crime problem in this country lies in the long-term plans by the police top brass to deal with it sustainably by resourcing all police stations to fight crime and better training of police officers.
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