Lawful And Unlawful Community Involvement In The Fight Against Crime
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21 August 2008: Lawful And Unlawful Community Involvement In The Fight Against Crime
According to media reports Mr Jacob Zuma, President of the ANC, on Sunday, 9 August 2008, launched a number of street committees in the Durban area. In his address Mr Zuma reportedly warned residents ‘not to be lenient with criminals’, although he cautioned that they should not ‘kill’ them but hand them over to the police. His advice to the police was that they too should ‘not be soft on criminals’ and ‘should not ask too many questions’ when those arrested are brought to the police station.
The creation of street committees to mobilise communities in the fight against crime is one of several resolutions adopted at the ANC’s policy conference in Polokwane in December 2007. In principle there is nothing wrong with this kind of initiative. In fact, where communities and community structures act within the law, the police will always welcome their presence and support. The law also provides the public with the necessary legal powers to act in certain situations. For example, section 42 of the Criminal Procedure Act of 1977 authorises private persons to carry out arrests for specified offences under specific circumstances, while section 49 provides for the use of force that is reasonably necessary and proportional to ‘overcome resistance’ or to prevent a suspect from fleeing.
However, if the thinking behind this initiative is that these structures should be able to operate outside the law, as is inferred in Mr Zuma’s reported address, the situation changes completely. It becomes unlawful and potentially inciting of violence when communities are told that, short of killing, the use of violence against a ‘criminal’ is justified. There is no indication in the report that street committees are warned to act within the confines of the law. To the contrary, the police were reportedly told ‘not to ask too many questions’ when ‘criminals’ are handed over to them. Thus, not only are communities encouraged to act unlawfully, but the police are also called upon to condone such unlawful behaviour.
If this is the way street committees are to approach their contribution to the fight against crime, they will become nothing more than organised vigilante groups. Instead of helping to solve the problem, they will only add to it. As a consequence, and rather than strengthening the rule of law, this poses the threat of complete anarchy. A grim example of this kind of ‘crime fighting’ is the recently reported assault by a number of residents in Port Elizabeth on four men suspected of cable theft. As a result of this type of mob justice one of the ‘suspects’ died and the others were seriously injured. Obviously there was no sign of ‘rule of law’ or a ‘fair trial’!
Those who take the law into their own hands justify their actions on the basis of the real or perceived inefficiency and ineffectiveness of the Criminal Justice System (CJS). Of course very few people will deny that our CJS is in serious trouble. In fact, in a presentation to Parliament on 5 August, the Deputy Minister for Justice and Constitutional Development, Mr Johnny de Lange, highlighted a number of weaknesses in the CJS and put forward a ‘Seven Point Plan’ to address these.
The irony is that the South African Police Service (SAPS), has, for the last ten years, been battling, with varying degrees of success, to implement a policing concept that is tailor-made for community involvement at grass roots level. It is called sector policing and, in essence, literally means the division of a police station area (precinct) into smaller, more manageable geographical areas. Depending on a number of criteria each precinct can be divided, for example, into four or five sectors. In each sector a sector crime forum (SCF) is established, with a member of the community elected as chairperson. The SAPS appoints a police official in each sector on a full-time basis as sector manager (or sector commander) to coordinate between the SAPS and the sector community.
Sector policing is aimed at mobilising and organising communities to become more involved with the police in the fight against crime. This can be achieved in a number of ways. For example, sector policing is linked to a very specific category of police reservists, referred to as ‘Rural and Urban Sector Police Reservists’ (or Category D Reservists) that operate only in the sectors where they come from. Once they complete their training, they perform their duties in uniform and, when on duty, have all the powers of a functional police official. Another advantage is that, when on duty, they are subjected to normal police command and control (supervision) mechanisms.
In addition, sector policing also provides for the establishing of street and block committees through which community members can participate without necessarily having to be police reservists. In this instance committees are linked to the SCF and thus to the police. This means that as much as the police is accountable to the community through the SCF, communities are similarly accountable to the police as a law enforcement agency.
In precincts where this concept functions well, those involved in it claim to have made a positive impact on crime and subsequently their communities feel safer. In a media report in early August this year Makhado (formerly Louis Trichardt), in Limpopo, is cited as one such example. Since the implementation of sector policing in this area in 2004, crimes such as robbery decreased from 99 to 20 last year; burglary from 561 to 268; and hijackingsfrom 12 to 1. There are a number of other success stories and, unfortunately, also many failures, all of which could be fixed by addressing resources, adding good management and raising public awareness and interest.
In conclusion and given the existing weaknesses of the CJS, it is obvious that communities and private persons need to become much more involved in the fight against crime. Therefore, there is nothing wrong with the establishing of street committees, but the challenge will be to ensure that they operate within, rather than outside the law. In this regard it is strongly recommended that street committees and other similar structures be formally linked to police stations through sector policing and sector crime forums (or community police forums). Where these do not yet exist communities should, through collective action, persuade local police to establish them.
Johan Burger, senior researcher, Crime, Justice and Politics Programme, ISS Tshwane (Pretoria)
