This is according to Howard Dembovsky, national chairman of the Justice Project South Africa (NPC).
This statement comes in light of such an committee, which should be in place to oversee the police, is not in place in Ekurhuleni. He also says that Johannesburg is supposed to have formed something similar several years ago and, to date, hasn’t to his knowledge done so.
“The statement by Supt Wilfred Kgasago of the Ekurhuleni EMPD that the reason the committee has not yet been established is that ‘some members who were selected were not eligible to be on the committee’ is somewhat worrying.”
He questions who selects, and what kind of eligibility problems he is referring to?
“It is my view that these committees should be comprised of people who have had experience in policing, lawyers and road safety specialists, who actually want to be involved and not some arbitrary bunch of people who think it would be cool to sit on it or worse, a bunch of people the metro police has selected that will not cause them any trouble,” says Dembovsky.
He adds that establishing one of these committees should not be seen as a nuisance, but an essential tool to ensure that the metro police departments to which it is attached, is made to be held accountable to the public.
“However, in many cases, this is the very last thing that a metro wants to be, seemingly because it views itself as somehow being superior or patriarchal to the public it is supposed to serve, and refuses to believe that it can do anything wrong.”
He says that metro police departments throughout South Africa generally have a terrible image and are often seen as being abusive and uncaring and Ekurhuleni is no exception.
“There have been many well-documented cases of abusive behaviour by metro policemen and women in their employ and there are even more undocumented cases.
“It is also a commonly held belief that metro police departments don’t do their jobs as mandated by the Constitution and traffic laws, but instead become revenue generation tool for their respective municipalities.”
Dembovsky says that nowhere is this more apparent than in the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, and while Ekurhuleni doesn’t come close to Johannesburg in this regard, its metro police tend not to handle traffic flow control with a great deal of care.
“It has also been my experience with these metro police departments that so long as you don’t bring matters of abuse to their attention and demand action, they are all too happy to interact with you.
“Even if you bring minor incidents to their attention, they will deal with them and tolerate you.
“But the second you bring a major problem to their attention, they and indeed their superiors in the metro suddenly get very defensive and will do everything they can to avoid dealing with the problem,” he adds.
Supt Kgasago says that certain things are not done according to some whimsical convictions of individuals, but stringently in accordance with statutory prescripts.
“Unfortunately, some of these critical committees’ processes are protracted because compliance to the letter is key.”
He adds that the EMPD discharges its duties strictly in accordance with its mandate of crime prevention, traffic policing and by-law enforcement.
“We invariably do our utmost best in discharging our duties on a daily basis under difficult and dangerous situations.
“Deployment of officers is mostly informed by crime and accident hot spots where horrific accidents happen and other road users’ lives are put at risk.”
According to him in 2010, EMPD embarked on a process of selecting members of the Civilian Oversight Committee (COC). According to him, these are persons of long-standing in their various speciality fields of law enforcement, business and academia.
“It later emerged, following the engagement with General Geldenhuys (from the National Commissioner’s office), that it was necessary to revise certain terms of reference in this regard so that we are well within the rules governing the establishment of the COC.
“The aspect of eligibility of some of the members that were selected had to be re-visited as well.
“The process in finalising all the necessary aspects we have to comply with is underway and soon the COC will be up and running,” he says. – @CarmenBoksburg
