Eastern Cape premier challenges criminals to a [gun] fight

Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane

The Eastern Cape, which is among provinces grappling with extortion syndicates, does not have  a proper and effective policing strategy in place. If it had, premier Oscar Mabuyane, a key ally of President Cyril Ramaphosa, would not have dared criminals to challenge the police, in the manner he has done.

He sees this as a quick fix to a fundamental crime problem which has been allowed to permeate across the social fabric of South Africa, where more than 6,000 people were murdered and over 9,000 raped between April and June 2024. 

According to the crime statistics for the first quarter of 2024/25 there were a total of 6,867 attempted murders, 42,858 common assaults, 11,312 common robberies, 5,438 carjackings and truck hijackings in the country, and 429 cash-in-transit heists occurred during the period under review. I agree with police minister Senzo Mchunu, these stats are "sobering".

 
In a widely circulated video clip, [watch from 4:10] Mabuyane confidently tells Newszroom Afrika journalist Sipha Kema: "I don't want those ones [criminals] who don't want to fight with police because they are making life difficult for us, because we must arrest them, we must have more budget, transport them to jail. 

"But those who fight are making our lives easy because there are two places where criminals belong: They belong underground or in jail. But in jail they are eating more tax resources, we had better get rid of them. We must not see them any more. Our people need safety as they are guaranteed in our constitution."

Mabuyane, who is the ANC's provincial boss and had ambitions of becoming Ramaphosa's deputy at the Union Buildings, said good work has been done in dealing with crime in the province, "and I'm quite happy I'm no longer having a huge traffic of complaints coming from communities, [and] I'm no longer making our commissioners not to sleep because of this and that".

The good work Mabuyane is referring to is probably that of an alleged extortion racket kingpin, who was gunned down by members of the police's national intervention unit, during a shootout in Mthatha four weeks ago. Besides Mabuyane's, there is another video clip of a police officer who boldly says if thugs shoot at cops they (thugs) will come out second best.

Mabuyane's remarks come after he was roundly criticised by Abathembu King Buyelekhaya Dalindyebo (Aaah! Zwelibanzi!), for allegedly keeping mum over the extortion scourge in a province where doctors' rooms have been forced to closed shop.

 
Thugs recently stormed the home of a Mthatha nurse demanding payment of R50,000, when the nurse asked if they had smoked their socks, he was robbed of his phone, laptop and television. In another incident a school principal from KwaBhaca was gunned down by a gun-wielding lowlife who demanded payment. There are many, many, other examples.

By comparison, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) has received mostly praise in the hardened manner it's dealing with crime and extortionists. Provincial police commissioner Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has been calling on the province's men and women in blue not to go to their early graves with "weapons in their hands".

This has seen the KZN police gunning down about 40 alleged criminals in gunfights since April. The gun battles have become a source of debate in many newsrooms, boardrooms and workplaces. I must say I'm always amused at the manner the KZN police craft their media statements: Without fail there is wont to be a line that goes: "In a shootout/gunbattle/gunfight with the police ..." 😂

Clearly, Mabuyane has been watching in awe how the neighbouring province is dealing ruthlessly with criminal suspects and would like to see the same method replicated ePhondweni (Eastern Cape).

But here's the challenge for Mabuyane. All the operations Mkhwanazi and his charges embark on are, more often than not, alway intelligence-driven, hence the high "success" rate, if we can call it that.
Mabuyane, therefore, needs to bolster the province's police brass, starting by seeing to it that a head of crime intelligence is appointed as a matter of urgency.

The Eastern Cape has been without a crime intelligence head for almost a year now. These are some of the bottlenecks that Mabuyane must deal with, before the province can start seeing progress and turning the tide against crime.

After all, those affected by crime have been calling on police authorities across the country to follow Mkhwanazi's stellar example in ridding his province of crime and "KZN" [read: gun down] those behind it.

Those who have made it their mission to terrorise communities, businesses and destroy livelihoods, leaving despair and orphans in their wake, must know they have declared themselves enemies of the people.

And the enemy does not come unless to steal, kill and destory. It's time we all put our shoulders to the wheel and push back against the crime scourge in the country. But police to the front, please Bethuna [good people].