MEC cracks whip at Poortman memorial
Police received a harsh message from Gauteng Safety MEC at the memorial service for slain cop, Captain Kenneth Poortman.
|||Johannesburg - Hunt them down like dogs before they kill us. This was the stern message to police officers by Gauteng MEC for Community Safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malebane on Wednesday.
She was speaking at an emotional and intimate memorial service at the home of slain police officer Captain Kenneth Poortman.
His body was found dumped near the Theo Martins pass on the Mabopane highway on Sunday.
Three suspects, Sipho Alfred Tlou, 25, Thabo Mampa, and Themba Mbowane, 34, were arrested less than 10 hours after the body was discovered. They face charges of murder, kidnapping and robbery.
Poortman’s widow, Ann - a liaison officer at Pretoria Central police station - was informed of a body found in Hercules, west of the city. She went to the scene of the crime where, to her horror, she discovered it was her husband who had been murdered.
“I am tired and angry of having to come to such events because we share the pain of the bereaved families. Pain caused by fools who have no respect for the state or people’s families,” Nkosi-Malebane said.
She lamented the number of officers killed this year. “I was confident that we had managed to bring an end to the scourge of police killings. How do I justify officers dying every week?”
The MEC urged officers to assume an unyielding stance in policing to prevent being targets.
“It’s wrong for police to retaliate but not the other way around. There was an outcry when Bheki (Cele) said 'don’t shoot them on their knees or on their arms' because they (criminals) do not shoot there.”
“Their (criminals') rights have to be respected. So I am saying to you, anyone who threatens your life you must do what you’re supposed to do, what needs to be done.”
Among those who came to pay their respects to the bereaved family were Pretoria Central cluster commander Major-General Tommy Mthombeni; Global Media Communications Committee and Crime Stoppers International (CSI) chairman Yusuf Abramjee; and, the Gauteng Community Policing Forum’s chairman Andy Mashaile.
He said it was a natural reaction to be angered by the murder against the backdrop of the number of officers killed this year. “If you kill an officer you are attacking the state and you are compromising the safety of others.”
On Monday, Mashaile said there was a need for harsher sentences for those who not only committed murder, but killed officers.
“If you take a life, your life you deserve to spend the rest of your life in jail. We are sick and tired of attending memorial services of policemen.”
tankiso.makhetha@inl.co.za
Pretoria News
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