No 'licence to kill' for S.African police

No police officer has permission to shoot suspects in circumstances other than those provided for by law.

South Africa police do not have a "licence to kill", President Jacob Zuma said on Friday, a day after his deputy police minister urged officers to "shoot the bastards" in fighting criminals.

- No police officer has permission to shoot suspects in circumstances other than those provided for by law. The law does not give the police a licence to kill - said Zuma.

Zuma issued a statement after deputy minister Fikile Mbalula pushed Thursday for tougher police action, saying the killing of innocent victims would be unavoidable amid an outcry over the fatal shooting of a three-year-old boy.

- Yes. Shoot the bastards. Hard-nut to crack, incorrigible criminals - Mbalula told reporters in Cape Town.

After taking office in May, Zuma's government has made a radical about-turn on crime from the previous leadership of Thabo Mbeki, who had minimised the dangers of a crime rate that averages 50 killings a day.

New rules are in the pipeline to clear up ambiguities around the use of lethal force, but critics say the changes would hand police a "licence to kill".

- We have stated our position very clearly. It is the duty of the police to protect all people against injury or loss of life. But... police sometimes have no choice but to use lethal force to defend themselves and others. -

Shoot to kill policies, praised by South Africans weary of crime, have come under the spotlight after the police's fatal shooting of a civilian last month in a car mistaken for a hijacked vehicle and of a toddler on Saturday.

Zuma -- who has backed stronger gun-powers for police -- said crime was at the top of his government's agenda.

Numbers of police officers would be boosted by some 24,000 in the next three years with detectives increasing by 19 percent this year, he said.