Minister calls for crackdown on criminals
Minister calls for crackdown on criminals
November 13, 2008, 06:00
South Africa’s Safety and Security Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, wants Parliament to review criminal law, to allow a crack down on criminals. Yesterday he told a parliamentary committee that government would also have to beef up the Independent Complaints Directorate's (ICD) powers, to deal with negligence and corruption within the police force.
Mthethwa says the law may be soft on criminals, but he wants to do something about it. He says there’s a need to fight fire with fire. Mthethwa says if locals feel they are not safe in their own country because of the legislative regime we have, then there’s a need to relook at those legislative parts.
Criminal elements within the police are also a concern. As Mthethwa highlighted, for the country to win the battle against crime, the starting point would be for the police service to be crime-free. Mthethwa will today be meeting the ICD to look at ways to boost its powers. Many complaints from the IDC about the police force have not been addressed thus far.
Litigation against the police
The Minister is also concerned about the R5 billion contingency budget, for litigation against the police. He says some police officers may be fleecing the system. He says people get arrested in a flawed deliberate fashion so that when they claim from the state, police officials would have their cut.
He also said he may dip into the 2010 Soccer World Cup safety and security budget to beef up police services and deploy them well in advance of the games.
www.sabcnews.com
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
