𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝘆 𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗶𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝟮𝟮 𝗦𝗲𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟰. In KwaZulu-Natal, shootouts between police and gun-wielding criminals are becoming the norm. Since the start of the year, close to 100 criminal suspects have been killed by police in running gun battles. KZN isn’t the province with the highest or even the second-highest levels of violent crime in the country, but its police are becoming notorious for “fighting fire with fire”. At the centre of it all is the province’s top brass, led by the provincial Police Commissioner Lt. Gen. Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi who insists that police are at war with criminals intent on bloodshed. But is this approach justified? In a wide-ranging interview, Carte Blanche sits down with Mkhwanazi to ask the hard questions around the emergence of a police force.