A spate of recent cop killings has highlighted the high rate of the murder of policemen, Times Select reports.
Four men and a police reservist were reportedly killed on Monday, while an off-duty policeman died on Saturday. Another policeman was killed in Hillbrow on Saturday, and a policewoman died after a police couple was petrol-bombed two weeks ago.
Times Select reported that according to criminologist Dr Johan Burger, the latest police annual report shows that 325 police officers have been killed in the past four years — an average of 81 per year.
The most dangerous provinces for police are reportedly Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Police commissioner Khehla Sithole has formed a task team to investigate the killing of the officers on Monday and Saturday, the report said.
Burger told reporters that a lot had been done to address the problem of officers who were killed on the job, but the problem was officers who were killed off-duty – about 60 percent of all police deaths.
A report in the Sunday Tribune showed that 12 police officers were killed in the first two months of 2018. Policing expert Dr Jean Steyn told the publication that more than 160 police officers have been killed annually over the past 20 years.
Former acting police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane said that 57 officers were killed in the line of duty in the 2016/2017 financial year, according to News24.
"The fact that our members are attacked in the line of duty serves as a harsh reminder of the challenges our officers are faced with daily to ensure that South Africans are, and feel, safe. An attack on one officer is an attack on all," Phahlane reportedly said.