Hon Speaker, once again we currently have a nation that has a brutal militarised police force, as the President has referred to over and over again, which treats civilians as criminals who perhaps should be beaten, raped, murdered and robbed whilst what we need and what we agreed in 1994 and as agreed in the National Development Plan is a demilitarised professional SA Police Service which is able to apprehend violent criminals.
The DA asked the President 16 days ago to institute a judicial commission of inquiry into pervasive police brutality amongst other things; to investigate the root causes of the problem, the actions of senior leaders within and outside the service which may or may not have encouraged this culture of brutality with impunity, and what can be done to cut out this culture of brutality that has become endemic in our SAPS. The question is: Will the President appoint such a commission as we have requested? If not, will he explain to this House why he doesn't take this seriously?