crime wave to fight crime with corruption
A policeman is shot while allegedly robbing Eastgate … the head of a car- theft unit is caught in a stolen car … Angella Johnson investigates rife police corruption
EVIDENCE is mounting that corrupt police officers are at the heart of the country’s escalating crime-wave, with worrying signs that some key law enforcers are linked to or masterminding criminal syndicates.
Experts say incidents such as the recent shooting of a police officer while taking part in a bank robbery at the Eastgate shopping centre in Johannesburg show that a climate of lawlessness exists within the South African Police Service.
Low salaries, lack of proper accountability and insufficient action against bad cops are among the reasons cited for the 8,1% increase in SAPS members investigated by the police anti- corruption unit since January. The allegations range from murder to taking bribes for the deliberate misplacement of case dockets —sometimes for as little as R100.
Other reported cases include the operation of rogue officers at the Soweto and Diepkloof vehicle pounds, where parts are stripped from recovered cars and then sold to “chop shops” or other black marketeers.
Complaints continue from members of the public despite the arrest of several suspects and the SAPS’s promise to clean up its act.
Evidence also exists of extensive police collusion in vehicle hijackings and theft syndicates in Johannesburg and Durban where police have been accused of issuing clearance certificates for stolen vehicles, which are then legitimised and sold on the open market.
And collusion between police and gang leaders is said to be at the heart of drug trafficking in the Cape which has sparked off vigilante activities from the group Pagad.
Part of this crooked culture is a spin-off from the bad old days when the police wielded vast unaccountable power.
As the judge in the trial of former Vlakplaas security police commander Colonel Eugene de Kock said on Monday, it is clear that a police secret fund existed, which had been used as an almost inexhaustible source of financing for Vlakplaas members and other dirty tricks sections of the police.
“It was used to pay for tax returns, the entertainment of spouses and merely to let them live in luxury,” Justice Willie van der Merwe said. The secret police fund involved tens of millions of rands annually.
Critics believe that when the millions of rands dried up, some officers readily embraced criminality in order to supplement their meagre salaries — some even claim it is part of a “fourth” force plan to discredit the new democratic government.
Relaxation of the quasi-military hierachy of the past has also fuelled corruption, indiscipline and collusion with criminals. The result is a continued use of violence — torture is still a popular procedure of getting evidence — rather than sophisticated investigative methods of a democratic police service. This has undermined the country’s crime fighting capabilities and allowed criminals to avoid capture.
So a brutal aparthied regime of yesterday which spawned mass murderers like De Kock also created an ethos which continues to hamper effective policing today.
A Gauteng police reporting officer, advocate Jan Munnick, says the police corruption units set up by the new government are merely touching the tip of the iceberg. “You have only to look at the kind of homes some police officers have and the lifestyles they live to know they are up to no good.”
However he acknowleges that many of the crimes being committed are not reported or known about, so it is difficut to get a clear picture. “I think it’s a huge problem. Most of the 450 known crime syndicates have police working for them and that’s why so few of these crime bosses get caught.”
Stef Grobler, head of the national police anti-corruption unit, argues that it is not that cops are much more corrupt “but that we are becoming more aware of the corrupt practices”.
He added that the problem is not unique to the SAPS, but also a question of the general lawlessness that prevails throughout the country. Such a rising tide of criminality encourages a guy to close his eyes, extend his hand and collect a pay-off.
“I think the whole society has failed because the culture of corruption has grown over a long while. It’s not new, we just did not identify it before,” insisted Grobler. Indeed he points out that despite the increase in corrupt officers investigated over the past six months, they represents only 0,63% out of 140 000 SAPS members.”That’s just over half of a percent.”
William Bratton, the former New York Police commissioner credited with smashing crime and corruption among his men, says the situation is similar to that which existed in New York during the 1970s.
“Then we had systematic corruption at all levels of the service. The remedy was to significantly change the internal affairs procedure and there were widespread sackings, including a number of senior officers,” he said.
When corruption again reared its head in the 1990s, Bratton says it was mainly pockets of crooked cops in the system. “I set in motion very sophisticated sting operations to catch them, using high-tech equipment and sometimes outside investigative bodies. Only 1% of the 38 000 officers were involved with wrongdoings and we rooted them out.”
In one instance an entire police precinct was sacked. Bratton said he used management powers which allowed him to move or fire people even if the case could not be proved against them in court, but the evidence was strong on a balance of probability.
Grobler points out that an officer cannot be fired in South Africa unless they do something illegal that can be proved in court, despite a draft proposal last year to shift it to a balance of probability, which provides more chances for convictions.
Professor Wilfried SchSrf, who was the civilain watchdog over police inquiries into senior police complicity with gangs in the Cape and director of the Institute for Criminology at UCT, says it is difficult to generalise as to whether corruption is endemic or is the result of a few bad apples.
“However we do know that it is fairly widespread. Clean cops are extremely angry and become demoralised by the fact that dirty cops still get protected and promoted. They say the signal is that they are being foolish and being clean also endangers their lives as they become victimised by dirty cops.”
According to Scharf, a senior dirty cop must have been protected by colleagues up and down the ladder for a long time. “They often end up bribing colleagues to clear their personnel files of any blemishes in order to secure promotion.”
The level of collusion in the Cape is also a throwback to the apartheid period when police used gangs as informants against the liberation movements. “Now these police are senior officers and the gang members have become leaders. Their relationships still hold and this makes it difficult for the police to act resolutely against the gangs — especially when some are on the payroll.”
Last year National Police Commissioner George Fivaz said he would introduce psychological as well as lie detector tests to gauge trustworthiness of key personnel, especially in the vehicle pounds. His office says the process has started, but as yet no one has been caught.
Fivaz said he is committed to tackling the problem and accepts that there has been a “substantial upsurge” in police corruption, but insisted this was because the police were receiving more reports of bent cops.
Both Scharf and Munnick argue that the police must work harder to break the bond of solidarity and silence of complicity, which keeps corruption ingrained in the SAPS.
“This cop culture to protect colleagues is a world problem, but we need more personnel and better training and retraining to shrink the problem here,” added Munnick.