Tangeni Amupadhi
Tension is simmering in Thabazimbi in the Northern Province over allegations that a policeman accused of failing to protect a state witness has remained on the force.
It has also emerged that police authorities ignored a directive, issued a year ago by the province’s Department of Safety and Security, to act against Detective Sergeant Lucas Molaletsi. Last month the Independent Complaints Directorate, a police watchdog, made similar recommendations and referred the case to the attorney general.
Community leader Richard Mahoa says the community is fed up with ”police ineptitude which continues unpunished”. Regorogile township residents have pulled out of the community policing forum, saying its activities are manipulated by police.
The case started in December 1996. For some time, Anna Chauke had endured violent attacks on her by her husband, Robert Chauke, but she often withdrew complaints against him. When she found him raping a 24-year-old woman, however, she decided to testify against him. Molaletsi, who had known the family for eight years and lives across the street, was in charge of the case.
In January 1997, Chauke was released on R500 bail. Some family members say he had made death threats against his wife when he was arrested. On his release, she moved out of the house. She allegedly reported the threats to Molaletsi, but he did nothing.
Two months later, Dorah Chauke, their daughter, convinced her mother to meet her father. At their house they were met by a seemingly conciliatory Robert Chauke. Dorah Chauke says she decided to leave her parents alone to sort out the problem.
But she heard people screaming that her parents’ home was on fire. She arrived there to see her mother’s badly burnt body being dragged from the burning house. An autopsy showed Anna Chauke had been struck on the head with a hammer two or three times before her husband set fire to the house.
Robert Chauke was sentenced to seven years in jail for rape and 12 years for murder.
Mahoa remarks: ”Police were aware that [Anna Chauke] was being threatened, but they did nothing to protect her. There are many other stories of police not doing their work and we want action to be taken. Sometimes they themselves assault people.”
Police representative Senior Superintendent Phuti Setati says he is not aware of complaints against the Thabazimbi police.
Molaletsi denies the death threats were reported to him. He concedes, however, that he knew that Robert Chauke tried to force his wife to pull out of the rape case.