We cannot have an alleged criminal running around the streets in a Metro police uniform and gun, says an outraged Durban councillor
Paul Kirk
A Durban Metro policeman who was implicated in an investigation into a car hijacking syndicate has been promoted to the rank of acting sergeant and put in charge of the force’s armoury giving him access to several hundred firearms including assault rifles, sub-machine guns and shotguns.
The move has enraged Durban councillor Peter Corbett, who claims that on inquiring into Nicholas Mthembu’s arrest more than a month ago he was first assured the metro cop had not been promoted and then told that Mthembu simply had been questioned with regard to the hijacking ring.
But this week the office of the South African Police Service area commissioner’s projects unit confirmed that Mthembu and six other suspects, including a member of the police service had been arrested in a “very sensitive” undercover swoop on a car hijacking syndicate.
All of those arrested except Mthembu have appeared in court and been accused of running a vehicle hijacking and theft syndicate that operated throughout the city and its suburbs.
The arrests came about after months of detective work in “Project Frostbite” a plan to infiltrate, identify and bring to justice Durban’s worst hijacking syndicates.
Said one policeman well acquainted with the case: “The person in question was arrested under Durban Central police station case number 2000/9/ 2001. We were initially intending to charge the metro policeman with two charges; firstly, the possession of hijacked vehicles and, secondly, corruption.
“We had no evidence that he actually physically hijacked cars, but we believe that he was responsible for changing the engine and chassis number of the vehicles in his garage or that he allowed his premises and equipment to be used for this purpose. However, after we arrested him, he agreed to turn [state witness] against other suspected members of the syndicate. As a result charges were withdrawn [but] they can still be reinstated, and will if need be.”
The news sent Corbett into a fury. “On the face of it I have been lied to. I was assured by council officials that the man had simply been questioned, and was in no way linked to a crime,” he said. “We cannot have a suspected criminal running around the streets in a Metro police uniform and gun and even worse being placed in charge of the armoury.”
Titus Malaza, executive director of emergency services of the Durban Metro, said he would investigate the matter. He said the policeman initially claimed he simply had been questioned and his explanation was not doubted as he had not missed a day’s work as he would surely have done had he been jailed.
Malaza said the Metro police was very careful with such allegations recently the force was shaken by the case of a Metro policeman being held without bail for 20 months on a hijacking case. The cop was released after a victim stood up in court and denied the cop was his attacker.
Advocate John Welch, deputy prosecutions director at the Scorpions and a trustee of the South African Gun Owners’ Association, expressed surprise that the suspect remained in charge of the police armoury.
Said Welch: “I do not know the facts of this matter, but I seriously doubt that, if this matter happened in my division, I would allow a suspected hijacker to be placed in charge of the armoury. The fact that he has turned state witness does not mean he is innocent; neither does it preclude his employers from taking disciplinary steps against him or moving him from his post. All that this means is that, in terms of Section 204 of the Criminal Procedures Act, a magistrate or judge may indemnify him from prosecution in return for suitable evidence against his alleged accomplices.”
Unlike a normal witness in a trial, those giving evidence in terms of Section 204 of the Criminal Procedures Act expect to be given immunity from prosecution in exchange for implicating their accomplices. By asking for Section 204 immunity, a witness effectively admits guilt and complicity in a crime.