JACOB ZUMA, LICENCE TO KILL?
Hurray, it is open-season in South Africa and for South African police! Human-head hunters are wanted in South Africa, apply with your rifles and shotguns? Are you a poacher, human-poacher that is, Zuma's government needs you? Bounty-hunters also, wanted in South Africa! Job description, to help Zuma's government reduce the number of unwanted 'armed' blackmen of South Africa! In Zuma's eyes, these folks are mere 'quarries' to be mowed down, using his newest weapon of vigilantism; and without recourse to judicial process or consideration of some rights to life which they may otherwise have as human beings? This is happening in Zuma's South Africa! What happened to the time-honored 'innocent until proved guilty' mantra of legal jurisprudence? Icheoku says, President Jacob Zuma erred by signing-off on this ploy by South African police, to hunt down and kill at sight, innocent South African men and women, who appear to be carrying weapons? As the police in South Africa, who are just recently emerging from their apartheid-era mindset, have now been re-authorised and licensed to kill first and ask questions later, Icheoku asks who advised President Zuma on this policy? After the nightmarish experiences of apartheid and the brutality of the police, it is shocking indeed that a man involved in the struggle to free South Africa should engage in this second 'apartheid?' How does anyone determine who is armed from a distance of several feet? What modalities are in place to prevent abuse or extra-judicial excessiveness of the police; who might now go into hunting expedition to see how well a good shot they are or how many heads they can garner as trophy? What if the South African police start using these Africans for target/shooting practice? What if the person was just holding a toy gun or simply playing with one? This policy is stupid, thoughtless, tasteless and akin to what obtains in barbaric times of vigilantism. Which sane man would authorise his henchmen to just kill any armed person in his country? What if the person is armed but not dangerous? In South Africa, it is now legal to just shoot at sight any "armed" South African, and term it 'provoked disposition;' as it is no longer required for there to be a 'threatening' posture or necessarily provoked 'aggression?' Simply put, here comes another form of repressive apartheid government, but this time, by a fellow African, on his people of South Africa? Icheoku condemns this new law as crude, despotic and thoughtless; and should be immediately reversed or not implemented. Instead of addressing the root cause of the social collapse in South Africa, President Zuma is cutting and running, using the easier way out? In his warped calculations, may be a few African lives is worth the trade-off? Really; and you wonder whether the sacrifices of apartheid was worth the blood and bile it took, after-all? Is it a case of going from frying pot into the fire? Or from the devil into the deep end? President Zuma would rather act on the symptom of the disease than the disease itself? Instead of tackling the seething unemployment, solving the education problem by educating these folks, fulfilling the promise of new post apartheid-era which seems to have died still-birth, facing down the problem of hunger, HIV/AIDS and other debilitating diseases plaguing South Africans; and addressing the frustration increasingly being manifested in these social vices; these unfortunate folks of South Africa who are already down on their luck, will now also be mowed down on the authorisation of their black post-apartheid President Zuma? Icheoku says and screams that President Jacob Zuma may hear us, the problem of and in South Africa is sociological, and not amenable to any quick fix of killing some 'armed' black people? Unfortunately, President Jacob Zuma is proving to be another Uncle Tom of South Africa, who will kill his folks just because some vested interests in the suburbs, says it is the right thing to do? Icheoku says, crime in South Africa pales in comparison to crimes in Mexico, Colombia, Russia, Afghanistan and such other crime-infested places of this world! So the question remains, why is it that it is only in South Africa that 'extermination' is being employed as a solution? President Zuma might as well feed these folks to the starving lions and hyenas at his country's national parks, instead of now planning to 'waste' bullets on their buck-eye shots? Just throw them over the fences into the dens and save your bullets; at least they will provide meals to these tourists magnets, a source of badly needed foreign revenue for your government? What an unthinking man President Jacob Zuma is? Regrettably, African leaders have no love for their people, otherwise how can a sane person decree that the 'baby be thrown away with the bath-water?' Certainly, some of the record criminality in South Africa is a function of mental disease which some adequate care might help in resolving; but Zuma will not entertain this postulation, but instead is deploying his men to 'just finish them off' and even when they are retreating and no longer a threat to anyone? South Africa is now the new Texas of Africa! Icheoku says, African Union should put pressure on Zuma's government to drop this heinous law as the consequences will be too overreaching and will impact society adversely? In his uncanny words, President Zuma said, "we have an abnormal criminal problem, for that we have to explore extraordinary means;" to which Icheoku responds that human lives are involved here and should call for more effort at fixing what is broken, than just waste God's creatures because it is an easier solution? 
Icheoku says, what is 50 murders a day for a country of about 48 million people when some cities in United States of America with less than 280,000 residents like City of Richmond California, averages about 100-plus murders each year; same goes with Oakland California's 100-plus murders each year as well as San Francisco California, which averages about 98 murders each year! Yet heavens have not fallen and the tourists have not stopped coming to the city by the bay; and sometimes they too get killed! But none of these cities nor State of California nor United States of America have ordered a 'shoot-at sight of its 'armed but not dangerous' citizens/residents? Crime is every society's aching underbelly and cannot be stamped out by killing-off suspects without judicial approval? What is needed is social services, education, employment and re-training to shift these 'dregs' of the society away from the only thing they know how to, crime! But to kill them like animals, since human-beings have right to life and without judicial authorisation, is simply wrong and does not belong to this modern times!
Hurray, it is open-season in South Africa and for South African police! Human-head hunters are wanted in South Africa, apply with your rifles and shotguns? Are you a poacher, human-poacher that is, Zuma's government needs you? Bounty-hunters also, wanted in South Africa! Job description, to help Zuma's government reduce the number of unwanted 'armed' blackmen of South Africa! In Zuma's eyes, these folks are mere 'quarries' to be mowed down, using his newest weapon of vigilantism; and without recourse to judicial process or consideration of some rights to life which they may otherwise have as human beings? This is happening in Zuma's South Africa! What happened to the time-honored 'innocent until proved guilty' mantra of legal jurisprudence? Icheoku says, President Jacob Zuma erred by signing-off on this ploy by South African police, to hunt down and kill at sight, innocent South African men and women, who appear to be carrying weapons? As the police in South Africa, who are just recently emerging from their apartheid-era mindset, have now been re-authorised and licensed to kill first and ask questions later, Icheoku asks who advised President Zuma on this policy? After the nightmarish experiences of apartheid and the brutality of the police, it is shocking indeed that a man involved in the struggle to free South Africa should engage in this second 'apartheid?' How does anyone determine who is armed from a distance of several feet? What modalities are in place to prevent abuse or extra-judicial excessiveness of the police; who might now go into hunting expedition to see how well a good shot they are or how many heads they can garner as trophy? What if the South African police start using these Africans for target/shooting practice? What if the person was just holding a toy gun or simply playing with one? This policy is stupid, thoughtless, tasteless and akin to what obtains in barbaric times of vigilantism. Which sane man would authorise his henchmen to just kill any armed person in his country? What if the person is armed but not dangerous? In South Africa, it is now legal to just shoot at sight any "armed" South African, and term it 'provoked disposition;' as it is no longer required for there to be a 'threatening' posture or necessarily provoked 'aggression?' Simply put, here comes another form of repressive apartheid government, but this time, by a fellow African, on his people of South Africa? Icheoku condemns this new law as crude, despotic and thoughtless; and should be immediately reversed or not implemented. Instead of addressing the root cause of the social collapse in South Africa, President Zuma is cutting and running, using the easier way out? In his warped calculations, may be a few African lives is worth the trade-off? Really; and you wonder whether the sacrifices of apartheid was worth the blood and bile it took, after-all? Is it a case of going from frying pot into the fire? Or from the devil into the deep end? President Zuma would rather act on the symptom of the disease than the disease itself? Instead of tackling the seething unemployment, solving the education problem by educating these folks, fulfilling the promise of new post apartheid-era which seems to have died still-birth, facing down the problem of hunger, HIV/AIDS and other debilitating diseases plaguing South Africans; and addressing the frustration increasingly being manifested in these social vices; these unfortunate folks of South Africa who are already down on their luck, will now also be mowed down on the authorisation of their black post-apartheid President Zuma? Icheoku says and screams that President Jacob Zuma may hear us, the problem of and in South Africa is sociological, and not amenable to any quick fix of killing some 'armed' black people? Unfortunately, President Jacob Zuma is proving to be another Uncle Tom of South Africa, who will kill his folks just because some vested interests in the suburbs, says it is the right thing to do? Icheoku says, crime in South Africa pales in comparison to crimes in Mexico, Colombia, Russia, Afghanistan and such other crime-infested places of this world! So the question remains, why is it that it is only in South Africa that 'extermination' is being employed as a solution? President Zuma might as well feed these folks to the starving lions and hyenas at his country's national parks, instead of now planning to 'waste' bullets on their buck-eye shots? Just throw them over the fences into the dens and save your bullets; at least they will provide meals to these tourists magnets, a source of badly needed foreign revenue for your government? What an unthinking man President Jacob Zuma is? Regrettably, African leaders have no love for their people, otherwise how can a sane person decree that the 'baby be thrown away with the bath-water?' Certainly, some of the record criminality in South Africa is a function of mental disease which some adequate care might help in resolving; but Zuma will not entertain this postulation, but instead is deploying his men to 'just finish them off' and even when they are retreating and no longer a threat to anyone? South Africa is now the new Texas of Africa! Icheoku says, African Union should put pressure on Zuma's government to drop this heinous law as the consequences will be too overreaching and will impact society adversely? In his uncanny words, President Zuma said, "we have an abnormal criminal problem, for that we have to explore extraordinary means;" to which Icheoku responds that human lives are involved here and should call for more effort at fixing what is broken, than just waste God's creatures because it is an easier solution? 
Icheoku says, what is 50 murders a day for a country of about 48 million people when some cities in United States of America with less than 280,000 residents like City of Richmond California, averages about 100-plus murders each year; same goes with Oakland California's 100-plus murders each year as well as San Francisco California, which averages about 98 murders each year! Yet heavens have not fallen and the tourists have not stopped coming to the city by the bay; and sometimes they too get killed! But none of these cities nor State of California nor United States of America have ordered a 'shoot-at sight of its 'armed but not dangerous' citizens/residents? Crime is every society's aching underbelly and cannot be stamped out by killing-off suspects without judicial approval? What is needed is social services, education, employment and re-training to shift these 'dregs' of the society away from the only thing they know how to, crime! But to kill them like animals, since human-beings have right to life and without judicial authorisation, is simply wrong and does not belong to this modern times!
No licence to kill for SA police
ReplyDeletePresident Zuma had said the police should use "extraordinary means"
South Africa's President Jacob Zuma has said the police do not have a licence to kill, a day after a minister said officers should shoot criminals.
Mr Zuma stressed that the police must obey the laws which govern the use of deadly force.
His government is giving the police greater powers to use force against the criminals who have made South Africa one of the world's most violent places.
But this week's killing of a toddler by police has sparked a national outcry.
"No police officer has permission to shoot suspects in circumstances other than those provided for by law. The law does not give the police a licence to kill," Mr Zuma said in a statement.
Murder charge
Last month, he said the police should use "extraordinary means" to tackle the country's "abnormal crime problem".
The government is trying to reassure potential visitors that the country is safe ahead of next year's football World Cup.
On Thursday, Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said it was inevitable that innocent people would get caught in crossfire when the police tackled criminals.
And referring to what he called "incorrigible criminals", he urged the police to "shoot the bastards".
Three-year-old Atlegang Phalane was shot dead in Midrand, near Johannesburg, last Saturday as he sat in the back seat of a car next to his uncle.
The police officer is reported to have said that he thought the boy was carrying a firearm, though according to Moses Dlamini, from the Independent Complaints Directorate, no gun or object which could have been mistaken for a firearm was recovered from the car.
The officer has been charged with murder.
South Africa has one of the world's highest rates of violent crime with an average of 50 killings each day.
Three-year-old Atlegang Phalane was killed when a police officer allegedly mistook a pipe the boy was carrying for a gun - he died from a single shot to the chest.
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa's police chief Bheki Cele did not excuse the "reckless criminal act", but did defend his call for the police to use "deadly force" when necessary.
Mr Cele was appointed in July, two months after President Jacob Zuma's took office - and 11 months before the 2010 football World Cup kicks off.
President Zuma said at the time that police should get tough to deal with South Africa's high levels of violent crime, but not be "trigger happy".
And deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has gone even further, saying: "Shoot the bastards," referring to "incorrigible criminals".
Two off-duty police officers, from Pretoria Central, said to have been "under the influence of alcohol" allegedly shot a street vendor on 1 November after he demanded they pay for sweets taken from his stall. A fight ensued and the officers reportedly shot him twice, killing him instantly.
During an investigation on 31 October, a trainee officer allegedly shot and killed 21-year-old Kgotatso Ndobe who began running as the police approached his house outside Pretoria. His family said he had been smoking marijuana and feared he would be arrested. Mr Ndobe was killed by a single shot to the head.
Thirty-year-old Olga Kekana was killed and her two friends injured on 11 October when police mistook a car they were travelling in for a hijacked vehicle.
"The proximity between the recent spate of police attacks on civilians, and the police commissioner's wild talk about shooting to kill, is surely no coincidence," says Dianne Kohler Barnard of the opposition Democratic Alliance.
The opposition Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) said Mr Zuma's government should "admit that it made a mistake and apologise to the nation".
Bheki Cele says police have a right to use deadly force when in danger
Relatives of the victims have questioned the police's apparent inclination to shoot first and ask questions later - and have accused police of shooting with no provocation or warning.
They are not allowed to shoot at fleeing suspects or those suspected of having committed serious crimes, as was the case under apartheid.
The government has recently proposed changes to Section 49 of the Criminal Procedure Act to allow police to use whatever means necessary to affect an arrest.
The government argues that many officers' lives have been lost at the hands of criminals who don't think twice about shooting.
They believe that if policemen were given more leeway to use their firearms when confronted with criminals, it would help reduce the country's crime rate and also possibly save their lives.
However there are worries that the government and police bosses have not explained to officers what circumstances warrant a shoot-to-kill approach.
"We are concerned that we are going to lose more lives if the 'shoot-to-kill' statement is not clarified as a matter of urgency," says the IFP's Petros Sithole.
"Heated political rhetoric which encourages the reckless or unlawful use of lethal force does not serve to support police officers but rather feeds into confusing them and potentially placing them in legal jeopardy," it said a statement.
The officers involved in the shootings have been arrested and are currently going through the judicial system.
Police watchdog the Independent Complaints Directorate, which is handling most of these cases, has said it will "not hesitate to take action against those officers who act outside the ambit of the law".
And as it stands, the government is adamant that there is no link between its call for "deadly force" and the lives that have recently been lost.