{"id":73284,"date":"2024-09-02T17:34:00","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T17:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire"},"modified":"2024-09-02T17:34:00","modified_gmt":"2024-09-02T17:34:00","slug":"mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire","title":{"rendered":"Mashatile says officers must use their guns when criminals open fire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Acting President Paul Mashatile says criminals have become brazen, undermining the state to the point where 39 police officers were killed on duty in the 2023\/24 financial year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolice minister Senzo Mchunu and national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola cannot conduct business as usual when we lose so many police officers to criminals,\u201d Mashatile said .<\/p>\n<p><b> <\/b><br \/>\nMashatile echoed President Cyril Ramaphosa and KwaZulu-Natal police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi\u2019s \u201cfight fire with fire\u201d approach in the war against criminals.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPolice officers must not die with their service firearms in their holsters when criminals refuse to surrender and start firing at police. When a shoot-out ensues between police and criminals, police have a duty to protect their lives, as well as those of their colleagues and all community members.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou [police] must show criminals that you are in charge. You must act decisively, using proportionate force in line with the threat you are facing, according to legal provisions. You must intensify your efforts to guarantee that you defeat crime,\u201d Mashatile said.<\/p>\n<p>Last Friday Ramaphosa praised police who shot dead criminals in a shoot-out in Cape Town.<\/p>\n<p>Mkhwanazi recently said those with gun licences should fight and defend themselves when criminals attack. He said should criminals seize their weapons this would contribute to the scourge of illegal arms in the country, in the hands of those wishing to commit crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Mashatile urged communities to work with police, saying fighting crime should not only be the responsibility of the police.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCriminals live in our communities, and residents know where they live. We urge all community members to inform the police of the whereabouts of criminals to enable them to promptly arrest all criminal elements in our communities.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mashatile was speaking on Sunday during the annual National Police Commemoration Day ceremony honouring those who died with their boots on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAn assault on police is a direct attack on the state, and we must take action against individuals who perpetrate the crime, which is equal to treason.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>There have been recent reports of criminals demanding \u201cprotection fees\u201d from vulnerable people, some going as far as forcing mourners to pay extortion fees to bury their loved ones.<\/p>\n<p>Armed criminals have also been entering churches and schools to strip people of their valuables.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinister Mchunu, we must make sure the police have enough tools to support their counterattack against criminals. We also need to find a balance to address the major issue of an increasing population, which police recruits simply cannot keep up with,\u201d Mashatile said.<\/p>\n<p>Those in attendance included Mchunu, national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola, minister of defence and military veterans Angie Motshekga, and minister of correctional services Pieter Groenewald.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\">South-Africa<\/a> Follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/\">Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Acting President Paul Mashatile says criminals have become brazen, undermining the state to the point where 39 police officers were killed on duty in the 2023\/24 financial year. \u201cPolice minister Senzo Mchunu and national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola cannot conduct business as usual when we lose so many police officers to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":73283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,7,12],"tags":[274,315,275],"class_list":["post-73284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-head-lines","category-policy","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-south-africa","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Mashatile says officers must use their guns when criminals open fire - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mashatile says officers must use their guns when criminals open fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Acting President Paul Mashatile says criminals have become brazen, undermining the state to the point where 39 police officers were killed on duty in the 2023\/24 financial year. \u201cPolice minister Senzo Mchunu and national police commissioner Gen Fannie Masemola cannot conduct business as usual when we lose so many police officers to [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-02T17:34:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mashatile says officers must use their guns when criminals open fire\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-09-02T17:34:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire\"},\"wordCount\":464,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2024\/09\/Hazrati1725285863.561674.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-South-Africa\",\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"head lines\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-says-officers-must-use-their-guns-when-criminals-open-fire\",\"name\":\"Mashatile says officers must use their guns when criminals open fire - 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