with fraud
Darran Morgan
Six members of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands child protection unit (CPU) in Pietermaritzburg have been charged with fraud after an internal investigation revealed irregularities in informer payment claims going as far back as 1996.
Most of the allegedly fraudulent claims were made out to a police reservist who, according to a member of the CPU, “kind of hanged around here, doing odd jobs like washing cars, fetching and carrying dockets, that kind of thing.” The reservist, known as “Dabo”, has also been charged.
At least two senior officers, captains, have been charged, as well as four detectives. The unit’s commander, Superintendent Salva Naik, returned to his offices last week after the completion of the investigation that began in October last year. South African Police Services’ internal investigations detectives have not ruled out the possibility that Naik too may face charges later.
Naik vetted all of the disputed claims. His legal advisor, Siva Chetty, said this week: “[My client] is not guilty of any conduct tainted with moral turpitude.”
Chetty is representing all of the accused.
Investigating officer Johan Beneke says he expects “sparks will fly” when the matter comes to court later this month as most of the accused officers are well known to the police and legal communities in the city.
According to a Midlands police management source, transferring the accused officers from the sensitive unit while an investigation was conducted has affected hundreds of pending cases and investigations. The accused officers were transferred when the investigation began and were only allowed to return to their offices last month.
The CPU serves a huge geographical region as well as townships around Pietermaritzburg like Imbali, Ashdown and Mpumuza, infamous as the “rape hot spot” of KwaZulu-Natal, according to Area Commissioner Tyrone Davies. On average, Midlands police investigate between 100 and 150 rape cases a month while as many as five child abuse cases may be handled.
n Superintendent Jan Swart, commander of the CPU in Goodwood, Cape Town, warned Parliament this week that children as young as six and seven are raping or sodomising even younger children, the Citizen reported this week
A 1995 study by the Human Sciences Research Council found that only 15 out of 100 cases of child rape or abuse were reported in police records, and that 60% of these crimes were committed in the home.
Addressing a crime workshop on child abuse organised by the New National Party, Swart said that while he did not want to debate the validity of the statistics, he believes the situation has become worse since then.
He said he believes that one million cases of rape and sexual abuse would be reported to the police each year from the year 2005.