M&G reporter
AN investigation against South Africa’s top detective, Priority Crimes Unit head Assistant Commisioner Karel `Suiker’ Brits, has failed to uncover sufficient evidence that he neglected to bring to book police members linked to apartheid crimes. KwaZulul-Natal police reporting officer Advocate Neville Melville was asked last year by Safety and Security secretary Azhar Cachalia to investigate allegations, made in the Mail & Guardian, of `foot-dragging’ by Brits in crimes with political overtones. These included the bomb which killed activist Jeanette Schoon and her six-year-old daughter, Katryn, in exile, and the Eastern Cape Motherwell bomb incident where three policemen and an informer were killed. A statement from Cachalia said investigations proved difficult because `a policeman of Brits’s calibre would hardly be likely to leave an obvious trail if he was delaying or obstructing an investigation for any reason’. The greatest stumbling block was that many of the matters were either sub judice or in a sensitive stage of investigation, preventing free access to information. Potential witnesses were also reluctant to come forward.