A shot fired against an officer is a declaration of war — Senzo Mchunu

New police minister Senzo Mchunu is taking a militant posture towards violent crime, warning that shooting at police is a “declaration of war”. 

Mchunu, a former teacher, has been part of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s cabinet since 2019 and was previously Minister of Water and Sanitation before his latest appointment. 

He inherits a ministry that has failed to reduce crime amid a sharp rise in violent incidents, rendering communities as “abnormal” the minister conceded. The police have argued that budget cuts are reducing their ability to curb criminal activity.

Crime statistics for the third quarter of the 2023-2024 fiscal year revealed that the murder rate had increased by 2.1%, leading to 155 more murders compared to the same period in 2022.

In an interview with the Sunday Times this week, Mchunu said failure is not an option and warned criminals that “a shot fired at one officer... is a declaration of war against the state and we will treat it as such”.

The police have been accused of using excessive force. This week alone, six suspects were killed in two separate police shoot-outs in KwaZulu-Natal.

“The message is don't fight, don't shoot, and don't be violent against police, they are the only legitimate defence on behalf of the people. We are ready for any criticism if there are failures on our side, we can tackle those,” said Mchunu.

The minister has acknowledged that crime has rendered communities “abnormal”, adding that the government will not lose sight of their demands for action. 

“The people are demanding safety, family safety, community safety. Communities around the country are suffering due to crime, they are dying. Crimes [that are] pushing the statistics higher are murders, rapes, kidnappings and extortion. But we have another problem, petty crimes have also evolved into serious crimes,” he said, adding that young perpetrators committing these crimes are becoming “violent''.

“Young people... are now forming themselves into criminal gangs, they are engaging in violent activities. They are adding to violence, creating terror places like in the west of eThekwini. This is adding on to areas such as the Western Cape [where] they are murdering one another — there are also drugs,” he explained.

And with the rise of extortions and kidnappings there is an urgent need for specialised units to be strengthened, improved and capacitated to deal with the uptick in crime hotspots, including stock theft, Mchunu said.

For example, kidnappings have risen nearly 200% from 3,832 cases in 2013 to nearly 11,000 in 2021. Between January and March 2023, 3,641 cases were recorded, a 10% rise compared with the same period in 2022.

Mchunu said the government has no excuse to be indecisive. “The people are not saying police are not working hard, even at the risk of being shot — they are saying [that the] government appears to be losing control against crime. We have to respond with a united front beyond visible policing, which accounts for 52% of the budget.

“We want functional police stations, well defined and operationalised in policy with norms and standards — and equipped with tools of the trade. Generally we are observing that we lack technology, we are inadequate on crime intelligence and we need to take drastic steps to improve that. But we have to make do with what we have and build up, review budgets, and so on,” Mchunu explained.

Mchunu believes intelligence-based operations require more funding, now 4.2% of the police budget, which he plans to tackle. The unrest in July 2021 was blamed on poor police intelligence.

The minister tabled a R113.6bn police budget on Tuesday in parliament and MPs have opposed the allocation of R2bn for VIP protection services in the 2024/25 budget. The protection and security services programme was allocated R4.09bn, with VIP protection services taking a 53.1% chunk of it.

Mchunu said his priority was to allocate resources more effectively. “Crime intelligence is 4.2% of the budget and that is very low. Levels of crime are also shifting from one province to another. We have to shift and look at how we use the budget optimally.

“We will realign — this VIP R2bn budget is one of the items we need to review. People are looking at crime levels and saying maybe part of that money can be used elsewhere and for now we are noting the concerns,” he added.