President Ramaphosa urges a holistic reform of South Africa’s policing strategies, emphasizing community involvement, technological advancements, and tackling socio-economic factors contributing to crime.
President Ramaphosa Cyril has called for a comprehensive overhaul of South Africa’s policing strategies to effectively address the nation’s complex crime landscape.
At the 2025 Policing Summit in Ekurhuleni the leader stressed that crime control needed a daring coordinated community-based method which shows policing has reached a critical point requiring societal collaboration to handle immediate changes.
During his speech at the 2025 Policing Summit in Ekurhuleni President Ramaphosa pointed out how crime creates negative economic effects through its dissuasion of investment along with its interference with business operations and increased security expenses for companies.
The expert identified various social problems including poverty and inequality and unemployment that combined with insufficient opportunities as well as patriarchal and misogynistic and fragmented family systems that lead to increased criminal activity.
According to him the process of treating crime without identifying its origins resembles treating a fever without determining the patient’s actual medical issue.
During the interview the President emphasized that police operations must be built upon Batho Pele principles of service delivery with respect as their foundation alongside empathy and accessibility together with accountability.
During his speech President Ramaphosa focused on the increasing challenges faced by the South African Police Service (SAPS) which include transnational organized crime, illegal mining, extortion syndicates, theft of economic infrastructure, money laundering and terror financing.
The fight against crime requires public trust in law enforcement personnel thus President Ramaphosa deems this restoration essential.
The President demanded better cooperation between law enforcement personnel and their service communities because SAPS members deal with extensive workloads and inadequate resources together with outdated systems.