Three-year-old Atlegang Phalane was shot dead in Midrand, near Johannesburg, 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. BBC News.
One of the first victims of SAs draconian 'shoot to kill' policy has been a three year old boy. Government and police are adamant that they will continue the policy in an attempt to combat the highest violent crime rate in the world. President Jacob Zuma said that the sheer level of violent crime in South Africa made it very different to other countries and said that many police have died as a result of cornered criminals opening fire on them.
Deputy police minister Fikile Mbalula said: "Yes. Shoot the bastards. Hard-nut to crack, incorrigible criminals. Where you are caught in combat with criminals, innocent people are going to die - not deliberately but in the exchange of fire. They are going to be caught on the wrong side, not deliberately, but unavoidably."
Opposition parties have condemned the policy.
What interests me most is the ease with which the so called rainbow nation has reverted to the policies which they vowed never to repeat. A shoot to kill policy was never openly discussed in apaprtheid SA, but was very much part of the way in which the Afrikander elite kept the black population under control. In 2006, The Regulation of Interception of Communications and Provision of Communication-Related Information Amendment Bill was passed, allowing police to monitor communications between people - supposedly to fight crime.
What is worrying is the way this kind of policy can spiral out of control. Who is next? The 'criminal' who is doing 160 kph mph in a 120 kph zone and who is unable to stop at a police check point? Someone is a hurry running down the street who just might be a bag snatcher? Communications workers protesting about pay? Booze fueled football hooligans fighting in the street during next year's world cup?
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