WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2008-04-20 Time: 00:00:00 Posted By: Jan
By Siyabonga Mkhwanazi and Chiara Carter
Susan Shabangu, the deputy minister who became a household name with her “shoot-to-kill” comments, has shrugged off the publicity and continued to advocate a hardline approach to criminals.
In an interview, the Deputy Minister of Safety and Security said she was not concerned about reactions and claimed that what she’d said was nothing more than established department and ANC policy.
But more than a week later her comments were still attracting mixed reaction, with the Witwatersrand University’s Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) the latest to enter the fray, accusing Shabangu of inciting the police to break the law and of displaying disrespect for the constitution.
‘I am not worried about the opposition parties. They can say whatever they want’ |
In an interview this week, a defiant Shabangu said, “I am not worried about critics. I am not worried about the opposition parties. They can say whatever they want. I work with the people. I don’t work through the media.
“I don’t use newspapers to articulate my messages. I am here today with the communities. I was with the communities last week. I respond to the challenges faced by this government.
“I address and make sure that the people of this country can understand the policies of this government, but they can also understand what it is that this government wants them to do and what it is that they must expect from this government.”
Shabangu has been accused of advocating Wild West law enforcement. But she said it was not a question of encouraging police to go wild when crime was committed, but of calling upon them to act “decisively”.
“It’s a message South Africans are very happy about and I am very happy. It’s not just a message – it’s a clear directive to our police officers when crime is committed, especially where citizens’ lives are threatened – including the police’s lives.
‘It’s a message South Africans are very happy about’ |
“The challenge in our communities is crime and we’ve got to make sure we eradicate crime within our various communities.”
Shabangu said the support she received from ANC leader Jacob Zuma earlier this week had not been a surprise.
“It is not a vote of confidence by my political party, it’s a policy position which has been there from my political party for a very, very long time and it’s a government policy which is quite clear – that we cannot tolerate crime in this country.
“If we want to make sure we become a prosperous country we have to remove all obstacles which might impede progress, and crime is one of those.”
In Cape Town on the imbizo trail this week, the deputy minister followed up her “shoot the bastards” comments with a warning that police were given guns to use and these were not toys.
If police failed to protect ordinary people, the people would lose faith in them and resort to vigilantism, she said.
Shabangu spoke about her concern at police being killed by criminals and how it hurt to see widows and parentless children.
The deputy minister might well have been thinking of the Jeppestown incident almost two years ago in which four officers were gunned down.
Shabangu broke down sobbing at their memorial service where she urged police not to compromise their lives but instead to retaliate when confronted by violent criminals.
This was one of few occasions when Shabangu had stepped out of the shadows. Until this month, she enjoyed a low media profile, first as Deputy Minister of Minerals and Energy Affairs.
Sources at government communications this week said the deputy minister was regarded as media-shy and they were astonished at her upfront stance of the past two weeks.
This weekend, CALS – a human rights research, advocacy and public interest litigation unit attached to the University of the Witwatersrand – issued a statement saying it deplored Shabangu’s statements and the support they had received from Zuma.
CALS said the law allowed the use of lethal force to save lives but not for the police to effect an arrest.
The centre said Shabangu’s comments contravened the law and displayed a “worrying disrespect for the constitution and the rule of law”.
The centre highlighted comments including:
“I want no warning shots. You have one shot and it must be a kill shot. If you miss, the criminals will go for the kill. They don’t miss. We can’t take this chance.”