A decade after the Marikana massacre where 34 mineworkers were shot dead by the SA police, it is imperative to analyse the current state of policing with the aim of improving on their mandate.
According to section 205 of the constitution of SA, the police have the responsibility to “prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and serve the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, uphold and enforce the law, create a safe environment for people in SA, prevent anything that may threaten the safety or security of any community, ensuring criminals are brought to justice and participate in efforts to address the causes of crime.”
With such a broad mandate, it is evident that the police need the cooperation of the community to discharge their responsibilities with effectiveness and efficiency. The relationship between the police and communities has to be a symbiotic one founded on mutual trust.
Communities should feel confident reporting crime to the police in the knowledge that they would respond with alacrity in apprehending those alleged to have broken the law and thereby terrorising communities. It goes without saying that the relationship between the police and communities cannot afford to be an adversarial one, where communities do not have confidence and trust in the police.
Such a situation would not augur well for law and order as the public would be dissuaded from reporting crime and choose to take matters in their own hands with the attendant burgeoning of vigilante groups. The police on the other hand cannot afford to be vindictive against communities they are meant to serve.
At Marikana, it is widely believed that the police acted in retaliation to the hacking to death of two policemen by the mineworkers. Currently, the state of policing in SA leaves much to be desired with criminals seemingly having an upper hand on law enforcement. Recent brazen acts of criminality including the shooting to death of 16 people at a tavern in Soweto and the gang-rape of eight women in Krugersdorp lend credence to this view.
The never-ending service delivery protests leave the police in a precarious position as they serve as a buffer between law and order and the violence and general lawlessness that are a normal feature of these protests. These regular standoffs then place the police in direct confrontation with communities, with the latter regarding the police as a stumbling block to their aspirations.
The fact that the police are poorly trained does not help matters either. The lack of public order policing expertise opens up space for mayhem to reign supreme with fatal consequences at times. There have been several cases of wanton police brutality recorded with the cases of Andries Tatane and Mido Macia springing to mind.
It is against such a background that communities lose their goodwill towards the police and tend to regard them as enemies. During the pre-democratic era, the police had to uphold unjust laws of an illegitimate government which made sense of their brutal methods. Now, the police serve a democratic government, but seem not to have embraced the new challenge of serving rather than terrorising the public.
These are sentiments and attitudes that police management has to strive to reverse and ensure rapprochement between the police and communities. Where attitudes are hardened on both sides, the constitutional mandate of the police to prevent, combat and investigate crime can never be realised. Some of the solutions to this policing impasse lie with the better education and training of the police in SA. Improved education can help the police with basics such as the simple taking down of witness statements which is crucial to solving cases.
Through higher education, the police can get a better understanding of people and their behaviour, learn how to use technology better and improve their communication skills between suspect offenders and other officers. Most importantly there would be a reduction of incidents of police brutality as studies point to the less likelihood of educated police officers using violence.
To this end, education offers best solutions to police misconduct as was witnessed in Marikana. Quality education and training are essential to ensuring officers employ only the appropriate uses of force. Furthermore, community policing and problem-oriented policing require problem-solving and creative thinking, which are skills that education can enhance.
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