Bheki Cele, the police minister of South Africa, recently returned from a trip to China with a group of senior police officials to discuss enhancing law enforcement cooperation.
The ministry is confident that when we also increase smart policing, the nation’s crime problems can be better addressed. According to Lirandzu Themba, a spokesman for the police ministry, the nation is looking into all options in this regard, including cooperating with Chinese law enforcement to advance technology.
In accordance with a police statement, the delegation’s five-day trip included engagements at the prestigious China People’s Public Security University as well as stops at police stations in Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen.
“Members of SAPS (South African Police Service) specialized units such as the National Intervention Unit (NIU) and Special Task Force (STF) recently received combat and educational training and graduated from the university,” the statement said.
Wang Xiaohong, China’s minister of public security, and Minister Cele also had a meeting. A top priority was “the establishment of a formal and rigorous policing exchange program of personnel capabilities and training between the two countries.”
The two also talked about security preparations for the upcoming BRICS summit of developing countries. The summit will take place in Johannesburg in August, and Xi Jinping, the president of China, will be there.
Environmental crimes, a partnership to use technology to combat violent crimes in South Africa, and the safety of citizens residing in both countries were also high on the agenda, according to the statement.
In addition to “Belt and Road security, crackdown on transnational crimes, and law enforcement capacity building,” Wang will collaborate with South Africa on these issues, according to Chinese state news agency Xinhua.
Violent crime is still a problem in South Africa. There were 6,289 murders in the first three months of this year, and rape rates in the nation are among the highest in the world. Comparing the current period to the same one in 2022, assaults and robberies have also increased.
fresh study
The visit to South Africa follows the release of a recent report detailing expanding police cooperation between China and many African nations.
According to a report released last month by The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, “over 2,000 African police and law enforcement personnel received training in China between 2018 and 2021.”
According to reports, China has built police training facilities and provided police equipment to African nations.
Study: “By providing Chinese security agencies with a highly permissive environment to design a growing mix of security mechanisms within African countries, China’s expanding public security frontlines and tactics in Africa have sparked debates about how much sovereignty African countries surrender.”
Chinese assistance was provided to South Africa’s ruling African National Congress in the struggle against apartheid. Many ANC members, according to the report’s author Paul Nantulya, have a fundamentally “anti-imperialist stance.”
Nantulya pointed out the ANC supports closer ties with China when asked if South Africa’s democratic system doesn’t put it at odds with a one-party state like China when it comes to policing.
According to him, China, which has a history of total party control over the government and security forces, including the police, can provide South Africa with valuable police advice because of the country’s commitment to the separation of powers.
The South African government’s statement following the recent visit, he continued, “underscores the multifaceted engagement between the South African police and law enforcement agencies and their Chinese counterparts, which has been in operation since 2010 and was renewed in 2019.”
It involves high-level political exchanges (twice a year), police training and capacity building, specialized language instruction, Chinese community policing forums, reciprocal visits to police stations and institutions, and South African police training in Chinese police academies, the official said.
