Gender activists have hammered the ‘suspended dismissal†of two Mpumalanga police constables who placed a woman overnight in a police cell with six men, who then gang-raped her.
The officers, from Volksrust, were found guilty of gross misconduct last month over the incident, which took place in February this year. But they were retained in their jobs after the disciplinary committee gave them a six-month ‘suspended dismissalâ€.
Mpumalanga Senior Superintendent Sibongile Nkosi said this meant that if they committed any offence during the probationary period, they would lose their jobs.
The disciplinary committee, which represents the provincial commissioner, believed the ‘suspended dismissal†was an appropriate sentence, said Nkosi, who added: ‘Whether fair or not, they are back at work and that’s it.â€
Questions have been raised about whether the category ‘suspended dismissal†exists in labour law.
‘It is a very odd judgement,†said Lisa Vetten, policy analyst for Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women. ‘It should have been a dismissable offence. They facilitated a crime. How can they now return to work preventing and investigating crime?â€
Vetten believes that, in addition to the two officers on duty, the station commander should also have been charged. She emphasised that because the public had been excluded from the disciplinary hearing, the reasoning behind the panel’s decision was not known.
Vetten’s organisation is exploring whether interested parties can appeal against the judgement in the public interest.