row with black officers
Tangeni Amupadhi
Minister of Safety and Security Sydney Mufamadi is extinguishing fires these days. In between shuttles to Lesotho for peace talks, he stepped in to quell a growing rift between the national police commissioner and black managers.
It is understood Mufamadi urged police National Commissioner George Fivaz to meet with the Black Officers’ Forum (BOF) after the commissioner gave them the cold shoulder last week.
Fivaz cancelled a meeting with the BOF when the organisation issued a media statement about an apparant clash of views between him and three of his deputies. The three deputies have distanced themselves from the statement, which followed a meeting between them and the forum.
Mufamadi’s representative, Andre Martin, would only say the minister intervened in the fight between Fivaz and the BOF, which was formed to advance “black empowerment” within the South African Police Service.
Fivaz’s hardline stance towards the forum appears to be in conflict with that of provincial police heads, the majority of whom have adopted a conciliatory attitude towards the BOF, saying they would meet and work with the forum.
Fivaz and the BOF have been at loggerheads since the inception of the forum last year.
The police chief said there was no room for a racial group in the police and accused the organisation of being “dangerously divisive and counterproductive”. The forum’s members are commissioned officers from the rank of captain upwards.
The BOF complains that the national commissioner’s powers are too excessive, and that he was either unable or unwilling to speed up the pace of change and tackle embedded racism within the police.
“Black officers are still being called kaffirs and other discriminatory names,” said a director in Gauteng. “Instead of being disciplined, the white officers are transferred to district, provincial or national office.”
In one of the latest incidents of racism, black police officers were given bicycles to patrol the streets while their white colleagues used cars.
Jack Magatho, the secretary general of the BOF, says of Fivaz: “He cannot wish us away. For too long it’s been a taboo to talk about change in the police. But the BOF has created necessary tension to address these problems. We are going to shake people’s comfort zones.”
Magatho says the forum wants to kick- start substantive changes in the police by next year, and will include structures which, for instance, will eliminate promotion by favouritism and encourage the training of black officers.
“Right now blacks are set up to fail,” said the director.
Leah Shibambo, Fivaz’s representative, said he is “willing to listen” to the BOF but has not changed his mind that there is no room for the forum among the ranks of the police.