The witness protection programme offers protection to individuals, but not their families, writes Mungo Soggot
Key witnesses to the killings which have ravaged the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands town of Richmond have refused to join the witness protection programme.
The witnesses are either anxious to protect their families for whom the scheme does not cater or are reacting to the programmes patchy reputation in the province.
Peace monitors in the province say their reluctance is often justified, claiming the witness protection programme favours a few hotels which are widely known to be safe houses.
SAPS chief investigator Bushy Engelbrecht who arrested alleged Richmond warlord Sifiso Nkabinde earlier this month on 18 murder charges says about half the 60-odd witnesses he has lined up are not on the programme.
Engelbrecht says witnesses tell him they want to stay home to protect their family or that they are their familys chief breadwinner. Some witnesses, who initially refused to enter the programme, have since asked to be taken on after being intimidated.
He says he has nothing to do with the programme, but believes witnesses are taken out the province by the Department of Justice.
Jenny Irish, of the Network of Independent Monitors, says that in parts of the Midlands the programme has developed a bad reputation which filters through to new witnesses. She says the handful of hotels used makes witnesses relatively easy to trace, while some witnesses under protection have been shot.
Irish says witnesses reasons for refusing to join the programme are often valid. There is little point going on to the programme if families are left unprotected.
She adds that there is a widely held suspicion that if people join the programme word gets around more quickly that they are witnesses.
Last month it emerged that a key witness to a KwaZulu-Natal political murder enquiry was shot twice while hiding in a hotel under police protection. The witness, Nhlakanipho Nxumalo, survived the hit but was subsequently dropped from the witness protection programme before the murder investigation was wrapped up and all the suspects caught. The case has been referred to the Independent Complaints Directorate, which monitors police malpractice.
The justice department could not be reached on Heritage Day to field questions about the programmes performance in Kwazulu- Natal. But it said earlier in the week that, countrywide, the programme is being swamped and is likely to overshoot its R6,9-million budget by three times in the current financial year.
The department said it will probably spend R20-million this year to cope with the increase of witnesses on the programme. In a written reply to the Mail & Guardian it said the number of people on the programme has surged from 40 in 1995 to 473 by August this year.
It dismissed any suggestion that the programme is ineffective, saying only two witnesses have died one in a motor accident and another through suicide after breaking up with her boyfriend. A third witness was injured in a fight in a bar, the department told the M&G.
It said a draft Bill on witness protection will be a vast improvement on the existing law, which is part of the 1977 Criminal Procedure Act.