We request that Mangwashi Phiyega, head of the SAPS, take responsibility in the following ways:

We strongly feel that the only notable effect the arming of police officers has is to dis-encourage citizens from speaking out against injustice perpetrated by individuals within the Police Service with no genuine interest in upholding the Law of our country.

In addition to the potential for these weapons to fall into the hands of criminals, recent events such as the Lonmin mine incident and the torture and subsequent death of Mido Macia demonstrate that the SAPS is not ethically sound enough as an organisation to be allowed the use of deadly force.

We the South African populace feel that civic safety is no longer increased by arming our Police Service with deadly weapons.

We feel that the South African Police Service (hereafter SAPS) may better serve its country through means on non-lethal law enforcement.

Dear Mrs/Miss Mangwashi Phiyega of the South African Police Service.

Please find enclosed a petition bearing -TBD- signatures.

The petition requests that the police force considers disarming itself of lethal weapons such as standard ammunition and instead focus itself on less-than-lethal alternatives.

This would help to both establish rapport with the international community and increase civic safety due to the lessened availablity of the said weapons to criminal elements.

This would not neccesarily reduce the policing ability of the SAPS as in extreme situations the SANDF can be requisitioned to help resolve the issue.

The end result would thus be that the populace feels safer whilst the criminal elements of our society lose a source of armaments.

Yours Sincerely, Dane Summers

Student at Northcliff Highschool