Number’s up: Alleged Cape Town gang leader Ralph Stanfield and his wife Nicole Johnson were arrested last year on charges of theft, robbery and fraud, but an acting police station commander’s behaviour suggests that gangs have succeeded in infiltrating some police structures.
The police have launched a disciplinary investigation into an acting police station commander who is suspected of colluding with alleged gang boss Ralph Stanfield.
A report on the alleged infiltration of gangs in police structures is still underway despite the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) having had more than a year to conduct an investigation.
“An internal investigation has been initiated against an officer stationed at Bishop Lavis police station following allegations levelled against him for not assisting a complainant,” said Colonel Andrè Traut, police spokesperson in the Western Cape.
The Bishop Lavis acting station commander, “Col Africa”, is directly implicated in an opposing affidavit the state submitted during the bail proceedings against Stanfield and his co-accused.
Stanfield, his wife Nicole Johnson, and three co-accused were arrested in September last year for theft, robbery and fraud. Stanfield was also charged with attempted murder.
Witness accounts in the state’s affidavit link Col Africa to two separate incidents involving Stanfield and Johnson, in 2022. The charges related to theft place Stanfield and his co-accused on the scene at a security complex in Milnerton. A witness recalled how Stanfield instructed Johnson to call Col Africa when security officers refused to let the accused remove a BMW vehicle from the complex without police authorisation.
Eventually his assistance led to the BMW being towed from the complex, which resulted in theft charges brought against Stanfield by the owner, who is alleged to have been Stanfield’s henchman.
The second incident involving Col Africa relates to another charge of vehicle theft and intimidation by the wife of the henchman, who turned state witness in January last year. In the state’s opposing bail affidavit, the wife testified she was threatened by Stanfield before her vehicle, a Toyota Fortuner, was taken.
She reported the matter at the Bishop Lavis police station where she presented proof that she was the owner of the vehicle.
“Col Africa told her, ‘As jy nou ’n saak maak, jy weet mos wat gaan gebeur met jou en jou kinders’ [If you open a case now, you know what will happen to you and your children]”, reads the affidavit.
“The complainant also told Col Africa that she has the keys [to] the Toyota Fortuner. Col Africa told her that the Fortuner [was] at Simon Stanfield’s house. Col Africa also said that he spoke to Simon [Stanfield] and that Simon said he does not have the key to the Fortuner.”
Simon Stanfield, who was a cousin of Ralph Stanfield, was killed in a shooting in the Cape Town suburb of Delft on 13 March 2023.
Bad cops
The police’s inability to take action against officers who flout the law has created a dangerous precedent where the roles of cops and criminals have become blurred.
It is unclear whether the internal investigation involving Col Africa will yield real consequences for officers implicated in criminal activity. The contrary is often true.
A high court judgment handed down in October 2022 confirmed widespread allegations of collusion between gangs and police officers. The judgment also shed light on how corrupt relations between cops and gangs have manifested over time.
It details how police members on multiple occasions allegedly assisted the “Mobsters”, a gang believed to be part of the Number gang the 28s.
“The evidence suggests not only a capture of some lower-ranking officers in the SAPS [South African Police Service]. The evidence suggests that the senior management of the SAPS in the province has been penetrated to the extent that the 28 gang has access to the table where the provincial commissioner of the SAPS in the Western Cape sits.
“This includes penetration of and access to the sanctity of the reports by specialised units like the Anti-Gang Unit and Crime Intelligence, to the provincial commissioner,” Judge Daniel Thulare said.
In another case, three police officers at three police stations, two in the Western Cape and one in the Northern Cape, are alleged to have assisted gangsters in criminal activities, as reported by the Mail & Guardian in November 2022.
After the high court judgment, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde instructed the province’s police ombud, Oswald Reddy, to investigate the alleged link between the police service and gangs.
Mandated to investigate corruption in the police, Ipid indicated it would investigate Thulare’s judgment after pressure from the Democratic Alliance.
More than a year later, Ipid has not yet published a report on its investigation. The only finding the Western Cape police ombud made was to confirm Thulare’s high court judgment and suggested an expert panel that would play an “advisory role” should be set up.
Winde’s office confirmed that the Eminent Persons Advisory Panel has been established “and is currently at work examining ways to bolster efforts to tackle gangsterism” in the province”, said Regan Thaw, spokesperson to the premier.
Concern over collusion
Reagan Allen, the MEC for community safety and police oversight in the Western Cape, said his office was “consistently pursuing” feedback from Ipid.
In early November, Allen expressed his concern about the prolonged Ipid investigation. He told the M&G that he had taken additional steps and had written to the office of the national police commissioner to “obtain a briefing from the commissioner. That date is scheduled for the first week in December.”
That briefing has not taken place.
Allen is determined to deal with the matter and said his office could consider taking legal action.
“But we still have, in the background, the option of approaching the court. The Intergovernmental Framework Act allows for disputes to be lodged. And we won’t shy away from even taking that particular step.”
The provincial government is guided — and limited — by its oversight mandate, and for it to carry out that role, it must receive the Ipid report together with its recommendations. Should the recommendations fall short, his office will “consider ramping up further checks and balances to ensure that those recommendations are implemented”.
Allen said individuals in the criminal justice system must know there are serious consequences when they are found to be on the wrong side of the law.
“We wouldn’t want any law enforcement officer to collude with gangsters, because gangsters have for many, many years tormented not only parts of the Western Cape, but also across our country.”
There was a “growing concern” about increasing levels of gangsterism and organised crime, which emphasised the importance of holding wrongdoers accountable, said Allen.
The city blacklisted seven companies linked to Johnson, Stanfield’s wife, News24 reported in late December. The metro’s action against the companies is the result of an investigation into all tenders following the death of City of Cape Town employee Wendy Kloppers outside a social housing site in Delft in February last year.
High-profile arrest
The arrest of Stanfield and his wife followed not long after General André Lincoln resigned as head of the anti-gang unit in the Western Cape.
Questions about why the arrest only took place after Lincoln left the force were raised, and Lincoln said he would be willing to meet the M&G, but cut communication after arrangements were made.
A retired detective who worked with Lincoln explained how difficult it is to build a case against someone like Stanfield. “To police the Numbers is very complex. Lincoln worked on Stanfield but it takes time to structure such a case.”
Don Pinnock wrote in his 2016 book, Cape Town Gangs: The Other Side of Paradise: “After 1994 a door opened and the world entered. Through it poured political goodwill, investment, tourists and the criminal underworld. From top government officials and businessmen to kids on the ghetto street corner, the boom in illegal goods and services changed everything.”
The complexity of organised crime lies in the fact that it enjoys favour from every aspect of society. It stretches from the neighbour who accepts a bribe to hide drugs in his house, and the person sitting at the corner tipping off people in drug dens when the police are near, to the public servant who hands out irregular multimillion-rand projects to smokescreen companies owned by gangsters.
A man who was once a member of a Number gang and who spoke on condition of anonymity, said he was “glad” that Stanfield had been arrested.
But he admitted his optimism was brief, pointing out the previous arrests of “gangsters” George “Geweld” Thomas, Saliem John, Rashied Staggie and Colin Stanfield years ago. Organised crime continues to flourish.
“You have to go to the root of the structure. Police and the community should work together very discreetly; there must be trust. And leaders cannot be silent anymore.
“We can send Stanfield to prison for life, but somewhere another Ralph is growing.”