Cape Town — An unapologetic Deputy Police Minister Fikile Mbalula has defended his and other ministers' statements of "shoot to kill" and said it was unavoidable that bystanders would be killed in the crossfire between police and criminals.

Mbalula's comments yesterday come after controversial shootings in which a young woman and a three- year-old child were killed by police in recent weeks.

Many commentators have linked the shootings to the increasingly intemperate urgings of politicians that police should shoot to kill.

Addressing the parliamentary press gallery, Mbalula said civilians would inevitably be killed but this would not be done deliberately. The recent number of deaths at the hands of the police could not be blamed on the repeated calls by the police ministry to shoot to kill.

Mbalula insisted the message could not be sent to police that they should retreat in the face of violent crime: "Yes, shoot the bastards!"

Mbalula also lambasted what he called "armchair critics" of the statements made by himself and Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and renewed his attack on African National Congress (ANC) veteran Kader Asmal.

"In the recent past we have been singled out and accused of recklessness. There have been various issues that have been put within the public discourse to ridicule us about the tough stance we have taken in the fight against crime.

"The overwhelming victory of the ANC at the polls was a ringing endorsement of our commitment to take the war to the criminals," Mbalula said.

Referring to Asmal's criticism of him, he said: "There is more to Prof Asmal's newly found dimension of popularity than meets the eye.

"I'm referring to an apparent vulgarised notion of eldership which seeks to stifle radical criticism and policy positions, particularly from the younger generation, and to project a fallacy of absolute wisdom which is masqueraded as intellectualism."

SOURCE: Business Day