Build One South Africa (Bosa) has condemned the South African Police Service (SAPS) for what it describes as “dangerous negligence” after a revelation that less than 0.14% of police officers have been screened against the National Register for Sex Offenders (Photo by Gallo Images / Phill Magakoe)
A senior crime intelligence officer, who is himself facing murder, kidnapping and extortion charges, has, since October, being seconded to the newly established crack kidnapping task team.
This has raised questions about the police’s ability to fight the country’s rising kidnapping scourge, and to hold its own to account.
Moreover, the South African Police Service (SAPS) paid R5 910 for Colonel Ismael Dawood to spend the duration of his murder trial, from 24 January to 28 January, in Klerksdorp and in the North West because his alleged crime “originated or resulted from the execution of his duties”.
This is according to an SAPS note, which also added that the “state attorney undertakes the [defence] of the employee [Dawood] or his … legal costs are paid by the state”.
“The employee did not forfeit state protection. The employee undertakes to repay the [SAPS] for the travelling and the subsistence expenses should it appear at a later stage that he … did forfeit state protection,” the note added.
Dawood is the second crime intelligence officer from the kidnapping task team facing criminal charges after Colonel Thatia Moremi appeared in court last year to answer extortion charges for allegedly demanding R40 000 to assist a family of a Johannesburg kidnapping victim.
Moremi is expected back in court later this month. He declined to comment when the Mail & Guardian contacted him, and referred all questions to the SAPS.
Dawood is facing a murder charge, together with Samuel Sanamela Kutumela, for allegedly killing a Klerksdorp suspect in custody in 2010.
In addition, Dawood, alongside seven other officers, including former North West deputy commissioner Jan Mabula, will appear in the Brits magistrate’s court later in February regarding the inquest into the 2006 death of police informant Solomon “Solly” Nengwane.
Nengwane was allegedly tortured to death following an investigation into a stolen R14-million from the Benoni police station’s evidence locker room.
According to a National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) statement issued in November 2020, the eight officers allegedly employed heinous torture tactics that resulted in the death of suspects.
These tactics, the NPA stated, included placing rubber tubes over people’s faces in a ghastly act of suffocation, tying motor vehicle safety belts around the necks of victims to drag them around and strangle them, and tying victims to a chair, with wrists and ankles restrained, placing a wet cloth over their faces, connecting devices to their bodies and applying electrical shocks.
The murder inquest is a private prosecution brought by civil group AfriForum, which said in a statement in May last year that Nengwane’s family approached the organisation after the NPA had failed to prosecute the matter due to an alleged lack of evidence.
Rogue kidnapping unit
The criminal cases against Dawood and Moremi have raised questions from senior crime intelligence sources, who told the M&G that the newly established kidnapping task team, which was set up to deal with increases in the crime, would not gain public confidence because of the alleged criminality of its own members.
“Right now, Colonel Thatia Moremi has been on suspension since October, and rightfully so. However, Colonel Dawood is still on the job and working high-profile cases, while he is facing serious criminal charges,” said a source, who spoke to the M&G on condition of anonymity.
“How is the public meant to trust that SAPS’s crime intelligence has a handle on the spate of kidnappings when alleged criminals are part of the task team? Major General Feroz Khan suspended, rightly, Moremi from the task team because of his legal troubles, but replaced him with someone who is also before the criminal courts.
“That does not make sense,” the source added.
Khan is the commander of the crime intelligence kidnapping task team.
On Monday, the M&G sent detailed questions to Khan and the SAPS national spokesperson, Colonel Athlenda Mathe, who said she would respond on behalf of both Dawood and Khan.
The questions included why state money was used to defend alleged criminals, as well as whether or not the police were worried that someone accused of such heinous crimes had yet to be disciplined or suspended, as was the case with Moremi.
SAPS had not responded to the questions by the time of publication.
‘Incompetent Dawood’
Dawood’s cases have also been brought into question after he allegedly allowed kidnapping suspects to escape in two high-profile matters he was tasked with investigating.
According to an internal crime intelligence report, two suspects, who were guarding the victim, escaped following the rescue of Mozambican Jahyr Abdula, who was found alive in November in Heidelberg, Gauteng, after being kidnapped for ransom a month prior. Abdula is the son of Salimo Abdula, one of Mozambique’s richest men, who sits on the board of Vodacom’s operations in that country.
The second operation Dawood headed was the rescue of an 11-year-old primary school girl who was kidnapped in the Johannesburg suburb of Mayfair in November and rescued in January.
A crime intelligence report on the girl’s rescue operation said that “no suspects were apprehended”, despite the internal note also stating that “surveillance was conducted on [the] address, whereby an extraction was tactically conducted”.
A source close to crime intelligence asked why, if the place where the girl was held was under surveillance, suspects had not been arrested.
“It doesn’t make sense why suspects were not arrested if you had the place scouted,” the source, who asked to remain anonymous, asserted, adding that “the current kidnapping task team and its members have been making a few errors of late”.
The source also questioned why private security companies were used in the rescue missions in which Dawood was involved, instead of the special task force, which was geared for such operations.
According to an SAPS national instruction into the establishment and functioning of the special task force, high-risk operations such as kidnapping extractions should be done by the task force, “given their skills sets and equipment”.
Rising kidnapping cases
Kidnappings have been increasing since the 2020-21 financial year, where cases stood at 6 036.
However, in just two quarters of the current 2021-22 financial year, which began in April 2021 and will end in March 2022, cases had already reached 4 232. This is according to official crime statistics released by Police Minister Bheki Cele.
[/membership]