The challenges of community policing in South Africa

If the President’s commitment to strengthen CPFs is seen as more than rhetoric - community policing has to be examined against the reality of the ch

In his opening address to Parliament on 25 June 1999, South Africa’s new president committed the government to take measures to "... strengthen the Community Police Fora to improve their capacity to mobilise the people against crime and to improve co-operation between the people and the law enforcement agencies." This, he said, would be one of "... the hallmarks of the national offensive against crime and violence."

President Mbeki’s commitment to enhance Community Police Forums (CPFs) is not surprising - these structures exist (sometimes in name only) at almost every police station in the country and are the most visible, if not the only, expression of South Africa’s community policing policy.

What is surprising, is that this statement appears to contradict the direction of the White Paper on Safety and Security, approved by cabinet in September 1998, which explicitly provides for strengthening the capacity of elected local government to ‘supplement’ the functions of CPFs. Furthermore, it also appears to pre-empt the review of the practical appropriateness of South Africa’s community policing policy which was mandated by the White Paper. This would be a great pity as, without such a review, it is unlikely that anything more will be added to enhance local level policing than the current rhetorical appeals to a vague concept of ‘the community’ with, as experienced elsewhere, "... all its imprecise aura of vacuous virtue."

If the President’s commitment to strengthen CPFs is seen as more than rhetoric - especially in the light of the country’s crime rates — then community policing has to be examined against the reality of the challenges that face it.  

Author

Eric Pelser, Crime and Justice Programme, Institute for Security Studies