Hazel Friedman
WINIFRED BROUCKAERT still carries the scars and bruises of a brutal attack more than six months ago. But more agonising than her injuries is the knowledge that the man who allegedly robbed and stabbed her in the face — leaving her partially blind and close to death — is a police officer still on duty at Johannesburg’s Norwood police station.
Despite the fact that Constable France Tjale was arrested on the scene of the crime, with his alleged accomplice, and is presently on bail, he has not been suspended. He continues to work at the Norwood charge office, side by side with the officers who arrested him. And despite an outcry from the communities in the station’s jurisdiction, no one seems able to do anything about it.
In February this year, the disabled, 80-year-old widow was woken up at 3am by strange sounds inside her Sydenham house. Armed with a wooden stick she went into the kitchen, where she was confronted by two men. They beat, kicked and stabbed her, demanding to know where she kept her money.
Fortunately a neighbour heard her screams, confronted the armed robbers and performed a citizen’s arrest while waiting for the police to arrive.
But for Brouckaert, the nightmare had not ended. “At the (preliminary appearance) in April, I was interrogated as though I was the accused”, she recalls. “Yet a man of authority who had flagrantly abused his position of trust was set free on bail.”
Tjale was due to stand trial on charges of attempted murder and armed robbery with aggravating circumstances on Sepember 11, but the case was postponed until November 16 due to an interpreters’ strike. Although he had been suspended from his duties just before the alleged crime, he was later reinstated. Ironically, he now works at the charge office desk, taking down the details from victims of robbery and violence.
Compounding the irony is the fact that the suburbs within the jurisdiction of Norwood police station have been asked to donate funds to the poilce station each month to help in crime-prevention operations. Yet community protests over Tjale’s reinstatement have gone unheeded.
“The situation is totally out of our hands,” says Major Charl Annandale, Norwood station commander. “The decision to reinstate Tjale was not ours and only the Area Commander, Brigadier Jac de Vries, has the authority to suspend him again.”
Despite efforts to contact him by both the Mail & Guardian and prosecutor Corina Coetzee, who is in charge of Tjale’s case, Brigadier de Vries has been unavailable.
Major Annandale insists the police officer is under constant supervision while on duty and “until the trial, it is better for him to be working rather than loose on the
But the men who arrested him disagree. “It’s bad enough having to arrest one of your own, and then to be forced to work side by side with him,” says a colleague, who requested anonymity. “What does this do for the image of the police and the morale of officers who, despite low pay and terrible working conditions, try to enforce law and order?”
It makes a mockery of the entire system of justice.”