Paul Kirk
The number of arrests in the Durban suburb of Chatsworth has soared since the entire management team at its police station was flushed out after they were accused of corruption, brutality and incompetence.
In the two weeks since new management has been installed, the police station has arrested 355 criminals for crimes ranging from armed robbery to attempted murder and car hijacking. In the period before the station’s old management was expelled, Chatsworth police locked up less than 100 people a month.
The previous management of the station was removed by the National Commissioner of Police, Jackie Selebi, in April after the Mail & Guardian reported how several Chatsworth policemen had bludgeoned a homeless deaf mute to death. Having beaten their victim with a variety of blunt objects, the policemen – all members of the crime prevention unit – loaded his body in a shopping trolley and pushed it around the charge office.
The M&G also reported how Chatsworth police had masterminded the country’s biggest robbery – that of R32-million from cash transport company SBV in Pinetown. Policemen from the station are standing trial for a number of other robberies, including a R7-million cash- in-transit heist. And it emerged that one police officer not only demanded protection money from the neighbourhood schools, but also threatened to shoot residents who criticised his policing methods.
Before the clean-out, more than half the policemen at the station were under investigation, nearly a quarter of the station’s guns were unaccounted for and murder dockets were reputedly being sold for as little as R1E000.
Asked to comment on the changes Logan Naidu, chair of the community police forum, told the M&G he was delighted that the old guard had gone.
Naidu said: “What has happened is for the first time we have police who are doing their work. Policemen are actually going out and investigating crimes and locking up the criminals. Before we had a situation where the police themselves were committing the crimes.”
n Crime statistics released this week by the Department of Safety and Security showed a reduction in serious crimes such as murder, stock theft and arson. The figures showed the murder rate was down 17,9% in the first quarter of 2000, compared with the same period last year. However, drug-related crimes increased by more than 18%.
The survey showed the country’s most murderous province is no longer Gauteng, but the Western Cape. Gauteng comes in fourth in this category, safer than KwaZulu-Natal and the Northern Cape as well. However, Gauteng residents are nearly twice as likely to be the victims of fraud than residents of any other city. And stock theft has made the Northern Cape the most dangerous place for livestock.