police
Police watchdog finds itself toothless as Western Cape officers defy its recommendations over Robben Island rape.Gustav Thiel reports
THE Western Cape’s police commissioner, Leon Wessels, has defied calls by the government’s Independent Complaints Directorate that he reprimand two officers involved in the botched Robben Island rape investigation.
Wessels this week also retracted the “unreserved apology” he extended last month to the rape victim, Nomboniso Gasa. He claimed he had “only apologised to Gasa for the perception on her part that insensitivity was displayed to her”.
He declined to comment on his reasons for retracting his apology, but added his decision not to reprimand the two officers represented standard police procedure.
The stance represents a major snub for the directorate: its report on the high-profile case was among its first investigations after it was set up by the Minister of Safety and Security, Sydney Mufamadi.
Wessels’s decision also fuels concerns that the directorate, supposedly a key mechanism in correcting police misbehaviour, is toothless. The directorate itself conceded this week that it is powerless to ensure that its recommendations are implemented.
Mufamadi, who publicly lauded the directorate’s findings on the Gasa case, was unavailable for comment.
Gasa, wife of African National Congress MP Raymond Suttner, is overseas. But her lawyer is believed to have questioned Wessels about his refusal to explain why he has not implemented the directorate’s recommendations.
Gasa was raped on Robben Island on January 20, but no one has been brought to book. As the investigation dragged on, police instead leaked reports suggesting that Gasa had fabricated the story.
The directorate began investigating after Gasa and Suttner officially complained about the conduct of the investigating team.
The directorate found that the initial investigation had “lacked competence and professionalism” and that there was “prima facie evidence of negligence and/or dereliction of duty on the part of the members of the initial investigating team…”
The directorate also found that Constable M McClean and Captain Kevin Jones were “dishonest in their evidence before us and did not take us into their confidence” and should be “strongly reprimanded”. It recommended that Wessels apologise to Gasa for the “insensitivity displayed to her” – an apology he made the following day.
Wessels said this week that he had implemented the directorate’s recommendations: Jones and McClean had been “called in to discuss their conduct in the case, but they were not reprimanded”.
National Police Commissioner George Fivaz’s office said it was satisfied with Wessels’s handling of the issue, and added that the directorate was “effective”.
Directorate representative Peter Mothle said it could not check whether “people take us seriously” but would be “incensed” if its recommendations had been ignored.
“We are setting up regional structures to make sure that we can ensure compliance and we are also in constant contact with the minister’s office about the matter,” Mothle said. Such structures could take another year to be established, he added.