FORMER TRINITY College dean of arts Kader Asmal has been branded “a bitter old man” by South Africa’s deputy police minister, Fikile Mbalula, after Mr Asmal said his idea to militarise the police service was crazy.
Mr Asmal, an ANC exile who returned to South Africa after the defeat of apartheid and was twice a government minister, has drawn harsh criticism for the manner in which he took Mr Mbalula to task on Monday over his proposal.
According to Mr Asmal, Mr Mbalula’s plan to militarise the police service in order to better equip it to tackle the country’s chronic crime problem was “low-level political decision-making”, and suggested a return to apartheid era policing methods.
Addressing the Cape Town Press Club, an exasperated Mr Asmal said the new administration’s proposal was an “extraordinary” idea, which suggested that its political memory had ceased to exist.
“We spent days and days in 1991 [during transition of power negotiations with the apartheid regime] to get away from the idea of a militarised police force. Extraordinary.
“This is a kind of craziness that all of us have to take into account.
“It is part of that low-level political decision-making without reference to the cabinet,” he said.
South Africa continues to struggle with a crime rate that has remained stubbornly high since the country’s hard won democracy was secured in 1994. The latest statistics show more than 18,000 murders were committed in the 12 months to last March, while burglaries and sexual offences are also on the rise.
Mr Asmal’s harsh assessment did not take long to draw stinging criticism from Mr Mbalula.
The deputy minister said Mr Asmal’s view was “hot air from a disgruntled individual”, doing nothing more than trying to orchestrate a return to centre stage of public life.
“If we are to fight the scourge of crime in a decisive manner, we need to stop pussy-footing and act decisively. If that means taking a hard look at how the police operate and transforming the same into a fierce force that instils fear in the hearts of criminals, that is what we will do.
“Our call for the transformation of the police from a service that is perpetually apologetic to a mean police force whose military-style operations and efficiency results in safer communities must never be misconstrued to mean returning to the days of apartheid,” he said.
The notion of militarising the police got a mixed reaction from unions, with some openly supporting the idea while others said they wanted official confirmation that the proposal was genuine before pronouncing on the matter.
The South African Police Union said the move to militarise the police would help to restore the respect for the law that criminals had lost. “In the criminals there is more respect for someone with a military rank. Anything that helps in the fight against crime must be supported and if it means militarising the police, it gets our support,” spokesman Billy Daniels said.