'Don't smile, use your tools', Cele tells officers amid spate of police killings

This comes after the ambush of two cops in KwaZulu-Natal who died under a hail of bullets last week.

Two others were also killed in the same province recently, including Durban police officer Royal Ndlovu, who was shot while responding to a domestic violence case in Chatsworth.

Speaking at Ndlovu's funeral on Sunday, Cele implored the men and women in blue to use their “tools” to defend themselves.

"Police are not the creators of new graves. They are here to work for the nation, on behalf of the nation. Police are national assets," an angry Cele told mourners.

"Criminals must learn that when we give teachers chalk, when we give doctors stethoscopes, police are also given tools to work."

He called on police officers to act decisively when they are being attacked.

"When a criminal shoots at you, you have no business to smile," he said.

"When he points a gun at you, don't allow him to shoot you because when you engage a member of the South African Police Service and the dust settles, and we are there to pick the pieces - we are not going to pick up the dead bodies of the police.

"We are not in competition of counting the bodies of the police here."

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Two more police were killed in the Western Cape on Sunday morning.

It's understood that the pair were on patrol in Phumla Street in Bloekombos when their vehicle came under fire in an apparent ambush.

Both members were killed on the scene and robbed of their official firearms.

The Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru) says it's distraught over continuous reports of police killings.

"The issue of police killings is of serious concern, and can no longer be overlooked, and therefore requires communities to also fully participate in jointly ensuring the safety if our residential areas," said Popcru’s Richard Mamabolo.

"Part of the problem can be attributed to the challenges of understaffing and the uneven allocation of resources to these men and women in blue therefore having to stretch their operations across a broader number of community populations in smaller groups, increasing their likelihood of being attacked."

The union called for management to urgently kick-start the process of restructuring and for the amendment of the Criminal Procedure Act to allow police officers to defend themselves in line with the law.

"It is a challenge that will continue if no urgent action is taken in ensuring more boots on the ground, and we call on police officers to remain vigilant, and to act decisively in the case they come across such ill-intended people who have developed the audacity to raise firearms at them, but also to take precautionary measures when carrying out their work, especially within the environments they patrol."