This is one of the findings in a report by the South African Institute of Race Relations (SAIRR) titled “Broken Blue Line 2”, will be released on Wednesday. Rapport has obtained a copy of that report.
- Rather than halting the attacks, police officers stood guard at foreigner’s shops so that looters can enter the shops four at a time to steal. Sizakele Nkosi Malobane Gauteng MEC for community safety, pleaded with police at one stage not to join the plundering.
- Some 120 shops were attacked in Soweto and Kagiso. Shopkeepers told City Press that police had told them to “go back to where they came from,” bribes were demanded in exchange for protection. They even stole airtime cards, headache powders and cold drinks off shelves.
- A police colonel appeared in court on Monday in Vereeniging on weapon charges. A Western Cape task team is investigating his involvement in the alleged supply of weapons to gangs on the Cape Flats.
- Thursday witnesses made a video of “policemen” that hijacked a Chinese couple in the east of Pretoria. The thugs were dressed in police uniforms with police equipment. Police admitted that its members may have taken part in the gang robbery.
The SAIRR’s report was based on 100 cases of serious crimes such as murder, rape and robbery involving police between April 2011 and January this year. This does not include cases of corruption and bribery in it.
“The 100 cases are just the tip of the iceberg” according to the report handed to General. Riah Phiyega, national police chief on Friday.
The violations are no longer “ISOLATED INCIDENTS”, but rather a “PATTERN of criminal behavior”.
“It is expected that the police will infiltrate criminal gangs. In South Africa, the police is infiltrated by criminal gangs. This is perhaps the scariest and most important finding,” says the report.
Confidence in the police is so low that you no longer can trust the person you report a crime to. They might be a criminal as well. “Women who drive alone in the evening have a reason to fear if they see blue lights in the rear view mirror…”
It is no coincidence that this problem started getting out of hand after Jackie Selebi, the first chief of police who never was a career police officer took over in 2000, said Dr. Johan Burger of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS).
The corrupt Selebi was on medical parole until his death on Friday. Under Selebi numbers in police uniform increased from 100,000 to 155,000, but the emphasis was on numbers rather than quality and bad apples infiltrated the system.
Requirements in the 2012 National Development Plan (NDP) that officers of the police should be audited to see if their skills and qualifications are on par, came to naught.
“Our sympathies should lie with the honorable people in the police. It is becoming harder for them to hold their head high. ”
A police official, who asked to remain anonymous, told Johan Eybers he was not surprised when he heard colleagues turned to crime.
There is a culture of nepotism, incompetence, mismanagement, poor service, an obsession with transformation and race, as well as irresponsibility in the police, he said. “We earned extremely low salaries; there is no support in the workplace, and almost no opportunity for promotion.”
Therefore good, hard-working police officers resign in a row and the others stay in the police for their own gain, he said. Because of all the scandals and the police’s poor service, the public has no respect for the police.
“They treat us with contempt and they know that it is easy to bribe the police.”
Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA’s shadow minister of police, also pointed the finger at Selebi, who disbanded specialized police units. “It was actually to disband the narcotics bureau over to (the drug dealer) Glen Agliotti. He sold out the police, “she said.
The DA claimed that the 15 000 service firearms that went “missing” in the past few years was sold by the police to syndicates.
Ian Cameron, head of Community Safety of AfriForum, who financed the SAIRR study, said they had filed an application in terms of the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia) to obtain information about the police’s guns. AfriForum is planning to reveal it in February.
Lt-Gen. Solomon Makgale, Phiyega’s spokesman did not respond to requests for comments.
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