The state of law enforcement is a crime

It’s surely no secret that the criminal justice system is in a disastrous plight. Serious crime is booming, convictions are down.

The expectations raised by the appointment of Shamila Batohi to head the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), have not been met. Not a single prosecution has taken place for those brazenly looting the fiscus.

After all, how difficult can it be? Investigative journalists released voluminous dossiers on corruption, detailing the criminal behaviour of prominent figures in the ANC. They named people and despite much blustering, not a single defamation action has been brought.

But Batohi deserves sympathy. It is unlikely that she could have imagined how dysfunctional the NPA is. It has been underfunded for a decade. After 2015, there was no staff recruitment, leaving 700 vacant prosecutor posts.

This week, we got a further glimpse of the rot. Lieutenant-General Godfrey Lebeya, head of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation – known as the Hawks – said in an interview his unit had been “badly crippled by staff shortages and competency challenges” and was operating at less than 50% capacity.

It’s not only at the elite level of the Hawks that law enforcement is in chaos. The SA Police Service (SAPS) has, under the influence of relentless political interference, steadily decreased in crime-fighting efficiency, even while growing in size, both in payroll and in the girth of its notoriously obese officers.

The statistics are dismal. In 2013, the police had 1,500 officers with criminal convictions, including serious offences such as murder.

Nothing was done. This year, SAPS admitted there are now 4,000 officers with convictions, of whom 32 are at the highest levels of management.

With a leadership infiltrated by card-carrying criminals, it should come as no surprise that ordinary cops appear to be uncertain as to which side to take. This week, the Judge President of Mpumalanga, Frans Legodi, was sternly critical of police behaviour, following applications by two transport companies for urgent court intervention compelling SAPS to do its job.

The applicants said officers repeatedly refused to intervene when their trucks were being attacked by local drivers wanting foreigners banned. The illegal activities included assault, robbery, hijacking, intimidation and malicious damage to property.

The police, said the applicants, just stood by, watching. They were clearly “reluctant or unwilling” to enforce the law, each time refusing to act unless the victims obtained a court order.

Legodi said it was not the responsibility of the courts to “prevent, combat and investigate crimes”. Nor was it the function of the courts to “maintain public order, secure the inhabitants and their property. The constitution gave this power to the police”.

Legodi asked that his judgment be brought to the attention of the Mpumalanga police commissioner to “consider an inquiry”.

But the problem is far bigger than just two hauliers in one province.

In the past year, about 1,300 rigs have been attacked, damaged and destroyed countrywide. There have been more than 200 deaths and Police Minister Bheki Cele was sufficiently moved to say “it is clear that we are now in crisis”.

That was in July. As with deaths from xenophobic violence, prosecutions are still not happening – never mind convictions.

The crisis continues …

William Saunderson-Meyer.

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