Rank-and-file members of the South African Police Union want more control of the union that was allegedly created by police generals, writes Stefaans Brummer
THE South African Police Union (Sapu), rival to the more “radical” Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), is battling to purge itself of a past which sources say was conceived and moulded by “the generals” to serve the interests of the old apartheid state.
On the eve of the union’s annual general meeting, which starts on Saturday, a highly-placed Sapu official described a “battle for the soul of the union” as representatives of the old order trying to get rid of the “monster they created”, while rank-and-file members try for more control it.
The claim by the official that Sapu was started as a covert police project to counter Popcru is confirmed in claims by a well-placed police source.
He revealed the union was in deep financial trouble — its main bank account, with Trust Bank in Pretoria, was about R350 000 overdrawn last week — and he suspected it was the doing of strategically-placed union officials who were trying to pull the plug to please their old masters.
He predicted a heavy battle at the AGM over finances, saying moves to have an independent auditor appointed have so far been resisted by some top officials, but that a majority of national executive members were ready to force the issue.
But Sapu has been changing, the official said. He highlighted the little-known fact that recent police disturbances — including the police strike at Orlando East in Soweto, which led to the death of a striking policeman, and another strike in North-West province — had been organised largely by Sapu representatives rather than Popcru.
The official said Sapu involvement in police strikes had brought friction between old guard and more progressive officials to a head, as the Sapu constitution still ruled out strikes.
Ironically, though, old-guard members had suggested a strike, combined with the “sabotage” of police computers, last April, to disrupt the country’s first democratic elections, the official claimed. He said a majority of representatives had rejected the proposal, made at a special meeting of the national executive days before the election. He said the proposal appeared to have been the work of those with old-guard allegiances.
The formation of Sapu in October 1993 had been a “stratcom” — a “strategic communication” which usually denoted covert operations with a propagandistic purpose — to counter Popcru, he said.
He pointed out that the four members of the steering committee responsible for the launch of the union all had connections with the old Security Branch or its successors. They are:
* Colonel Seppie Burger, who at the time of the union launch was (and may still be) a major in D-section, the highly-secretive intelligence arm of the Crime Information Service. He drafted Sapu’s constitution.
* Peter-Don Brandt, who resigned from the Division Community Relations at police headquarters in Pretoria to take full-time employment with Sapu as national secretary. DCR is known to have been almost exclusively staffed by ex-Branch members.
* Colonel Frans Mostert, a former security policeman who occupied a senior position in the DCR at the time of the launch. He was elected the first president of the union, but resigned about six months later to become former police commissioner General Johan van der Merwe’s staff officer.
* Gerhardt van der Merwe, who at the time was a “strategic analyst” at police headquarters in Pretoria. It was the task of strategic analysts to plan “stratcoms”. Van der Merwe also resigned from the police to take a full-time Sapu position as national organiser. He is now Sapu liaison officer.
The official claimed the four had anonymously, and using official mailing channels, probed police members to gauge feelings before the launch of the union. He said it was “ironic” the initiators had Branch backgrounds, as the general experience was that such police officers were not interested in joining a union.
The official said a special meeting of the national executive, consisting of nine regional representatives and one HQ representative, was held last April 23. He claimed Brandt then suggested a plan for Sapu members to embark on a go-slow strike during the elections, ostensibly because they were unhappy their election allowances. Brandt allegedly also said they could “pull the plug” on the mainframe computer, which would disrupt the policing of the elections. But a majority of committee members opposed the plan, the official said.
Most executive members were only told of the union’s financial problems last December, when the debt was already more than R300 000.
A final irony is that Sapu has had exploratory talks with the umbrella labour organisation Cosatu. He said, however, that he uncertain the Sapu move was a final attempt to do the bidding of the old guard — who would not mind a foothold in Cosatu.
* Sapu liaison officer Van der Merwe commented that the claims seemed to have been made “by someone fighting for a position”.
He denied the union had been conceived as a “stratcom”, that he or Brandt had security links, and the claims of plans to disrupt the elections, saying minutes of the April 23 meeting were available. But he acknowledged earlier attempts to use the union in a political. “But we resisted that,” he said.