Ufrieda Ho
Up to 45% of drug cases are being tossed out of court a staggering statistic that indicates rot in the law enforcement system.
This finding is drawn from statistics in six provinces, excluding the Western, Eastern and Northern Cape. It reveals a system dogged by a lack of integrity and competence by police members, a weak system for the storage and disposal of drugs and hiccups in the courts.
Spokesperson for the National Directorate of Public Prosecutions, Sipho Ngwema, says cases are not being withdrawn by court officials, but by police officers.
“This is not something that we’ve detected because most of our cases get finalised and we actually have a good conviction rate. But the police should come to us so that we can look into this as joint stakeholders,” he says.
Senior Superintendent Etienne van Zyl of the Forensic Science Laboratory in Pretoria, who mapped the statistics, says: “It’s unacceptable that such a high percentage of cases are withdrawn even when there are positive forensic findings.”
He says a comprehensive evaluation into the effectiveness of drug law enforcement from pre-arrest stage through to prosecution has to be undertaken.
South Africa’s drug law enforcement system may not be keeping pace with increased drug saturation in the country. The Forensic Science Laboratory’s workload increased by 41% last year.
Other statistics show that while 21658 ecstasy tablets were seized in 1999 the figure last year was more than 297000. Heroin quantities seized in 1999 topped 6,4kg. Last year the figure rose to 15,4g. This year two cocaine busts yielded more than 200kg compared to an entire year’s total of 91,2kg last year.
Ted Leggett, of the Institute for Security Studies, says: “Monitoring mechanisms need to change in line with the changing drug scenario in South Africa.”
He says the explosion of crack on the drug scene since 1994 has also raised the stakes.
“One of the primary areas of concern is in the stages before drugs get to the forensic labs. It’s not uncommon for cops, particularly those in non-specialised units, to take a few rocks of crack off a prostitute and not to turn them in,” says Leggett.
In these incidental drug busts, a standing police order is the only mechanism that ensures that drugs seized end up destroyed and not recirculating on the streets. Drugs are supposed to go to one of four police forensic science laboratories in the country for testing. These labs are also responsible for storage and destruction of drugs.
It’s a misplaced responsibility, says Van Zyl. “We as a test laboratory should have no involvement in the storage and destruction of drugs, it’s not a forensic science function.”
Storage facilities in Pretoria are basic, though all evidence awaiting court hearings has to be sealed, marked and documented. But the laboratory is storing evidence dating back to 1992 that that can’t be destroyed because of court backlogs.
“The longer we keep the drugs, the higher the risk for thefts or break-ins,” Van Zyl says.
He confirms that there have been attempts to bribe laboratory staff, and says low police salaries inflate this problem.
Drugs are destroyed by burning and procedures have to be photographed or videotaped. But because there isn’t a police incineration facility, open fires are used instead. This inadequate system poses an environmental hazard and also means laboratory staff are making bonfires while they should be working on their backlogs.
Van Zyl says legislation has to be created to allow for pretrial destruction of drugs to obviate safety risks and the establishment of separate drug courts could ease backlogs.
Leggett and Van Zyl are in favour of random drug and polygraph testing of police officers. Leggett adds that private bank accounts and assets of policemen working with drugs should also be monitored.
Spokesperson for the Gauteng police commissioner, Captain Mary Martins-Engelbrecht, acknowledges that bribery, corruption and drug abuse occur in the police, but says drug testing won’t happen. “According to the Constitution we cannot compel a member to take a drug test.”
Martins-Engelbrecht insists police are winning the battle against drugs and points to the number of recent successful drug busts. But these may be empty victories that don’t match up to increased levels of drug activity.
Sheryl Rahme of the First Step Outpatient Clinic says: “The authorities don’t realise that we have a drug epidemic on our hands and neither the police nor the courts toe the line.”
She says police take bribes to turn a blind eye and are often reluctant to find under-aged addicts living on the streets. The courts also don’t see the urgency of the problem. It can take up to four months to process a warrant of arrest to get a child addict off the streets.
“During this time the child could die or move on to harder drugs,” says Rahme.