‘Public is losing faith in the police’: Saps’s battle with criminals within its ranks

Police Minister Bheki Cele has revealed that 104 police officers in the North West have been implicated in criminal activities, including attempted murder, business robbery, corruption, rape, kidnapping and theft since 2020.

Of particular concern is the number of senior police officers implicated in the crimes, including a colonel, lieutenant-colonel, three captains, six warrant officers, unit commanders and detectives.

According to information revealed in a parliamentary reply to a Freedom Front Plus (FF+) question, the criminal activities also extended to malicious damage to property, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm (GBH) and domestic violence.

At least 10 of those implicated are investigating officers, 75 community service centre members, a detective service branch commander, a visible policing commander, two members of the Tactical Response Team (TRT), two members of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences unit and an Operation Command Centre member.

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The FF+ in the province noted that there was no mention of the progress with the investigations into the other 99 members. The party said it will demand a comprehensive breakdown of the status of these investigations in a follow-up question to the minister.

Bad example

Fanie du Toit, FF+ member of provincial parliament, said these are the officers of the law the community looked up to and are supposed to set a good example.

He said this situation painted a sombre picture of the public increasingly losing its faith in the police, which has led to increased incidents of mob justice.

“The situation points to the low morale among police officers that took root over the last few years due to, among other things, instability in the national police management. Unfortunately, the most dedicated police officers also suffer the consequences of poor management and the actions of criminal elements in the police service,” Du Toit said.

He said restoring morale and discipline in the police ought to be Cele’s highest priority as the high levels of crime in the country cannot be effectively combatted by a police force undermined by criminals within its ranks.

South Africa has some of the highest crime rates in the world, with the latest crime stats for the first quarter of 2022/23 – representing crime data for April to June 2022 – showing that 6,424 people were murdered.

The SA Police Service has long been plagued by rogue elements within its ranks, from top to bottom, with the organisation’s top echelons bedevilled by scandalous departures of police commissioners.

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Starting with the conviction of then police commissioner, the late Jackie Selebi, the current minister of police Bheki Cele was dismissed as police commissioner in 2011 for his involvement in a police building irregular lease scandal.

Former acting police commissioner Khomotso Phahlane is currently facing corruption charges, with former commissioner Khehla Sitole stepping down amid allegations of refusing to cooperate with an investigation into the murder of organised crime detective Charl Kinnear.

Unresolved issues

University of Free State anthropology of crime specialist Professor Theodore Petrus said there will be no significant improvement in the status of the Saps until infighting, instability, meddling and corruption at the top was dealt with.

He said added to this was the growing frustrations about the high cost of living, as well as the energy crisis.

“If we get into an extended blackout situation this may prove too much for the police to handle. The third issue is whether the new commissioner will get support and cooperation from his political masters and his peers in the other key safety and security organisations,” Petrus added.

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University of Cape Town (UCT) Centre of Criminology researcher Dr Anine Kriegler was however optimistic with the future of the police, saying the revelations demonstrated that something was being done about rogue elements.

“I do think there is hope. It is distressing when we see police being dismissed and prosecuted for corruption or abuse of power. But these kinds of incidents are actually a positive thing. They show that there are still enough honest people in the police and in oversight capacities to bring the wrongdoing to light and to push for consequences,” she said.

Kriegler said the fact that a former police commissioner was arrested by his former employees demonstrated that systems still functions within the rule of law.

She said one would want to actually stop these scandals from happening in the first place but said South Africans should take some hope when statistics like these were released as transparency was an important first step.

Kriegler said the next step to cleanse and rebuild the police was accountability, saying the organisation had a discipline management system crisis.

“[Saps] should invite [Independent Police Investigative Directorate] Ipid, police ombudsmen, the Civilian Secretariat for Police, civil society groups and experts to partner with it to help revise and strengthen its internal disciplinary processes. Otherwise, people will continue to lose faith in the police. This leads communities to turn away from the state and to take matters into their own hands, which breeds more lawlessness and violence,” she added.