S AT U R D AY S TA R

INSIGHT

April 6

2013

15

GARETH NEWHAM

HE DEATH in February of Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia, allegedly at the hands of police officers, once again turned the worlds attention to police brutality in South Africa. So, too, has the controversial verdict in the Andries Tatane murder case. But these incidents only became a major media sensation due to the fact that there was video footage. And while statements condemning the incidents were forthcoming from some in the political and police leadership, they ultimately appeared to be in denial about the scale of the problem. However, when you look at the systematic police abuse that has been taking place for a number of years, it seems it is only a matter of time before similar tragedies happen again. The denial of the crisis may be because, at its root, lies the longstanding, persistent problem of poor leadership of the SAPS. Essentially , our political leaders have not recognised policing as an important profession that requires high levels of skill, expertise and integrity . President Thabo Mbeki could, therefore, appoint Jackie Selebi despite Selebis absence of experience or knowledge of policing as his national police commissioner late in 1999. At first Selebi talked and acted tough to demonstrate he was in charge. However, it was not long before he revealed his lack of understanding of what was required to ensure that the armed officials under his command would use their powers and weapons primarily to ensure public safety and security and to enforce the law. One of Selebis first strategic mistakes was to push for a mass recruitment drive of police officers without fully appreciating what it takes to effectively train and manage them. As crime levels were increasing substantially at the time of his appointment, Selebi based his strategy on the assumption that more police officials equals less crime. This made sense to Mbeki, and each year, the SAPS received a generous budgetary increase about twice that of the inflation rate. This resulted in almost 70 000 more people being recruited into the organisation since 2002. Unfortunately , Selebi was seemingly uninterested in the quality and integrity of these recruits. Selebis lack of willingness to engage with and learn from the extensive policing experience around him or from international experience meant that he had little appreciation as to the dangers that mass recruitment drives can pose for policing organisations. His determination to meet increased personnel targets meant that thousands of people who either failed the basic requirements or were otherwise not fit to be police officials were allowed into the SAPS. Training time was halved and station level commanders found themselves supervising ever-larger numbers of inadequately trained recruits. Simultaneously , police management systems started to weaken or collapse as Selebi appointed people to senior posts regardless of their lack of expertise or abilities. One particularly notorious example took place in 2005 when Selebi appointed a new head of the SAPS

CAUGHT ON CAMERA: A screen grab from a video shot of Andries Tatane during the Ficksburg unrest in the Free State on April 13, 2011. Tatane was shot at close range with rubber bullets by police in riot gear. The writer argues that a lack of expertise and leadership is limiting the SAPSs ability to reduce crime. PICTURE: MCC (MEQHELENG CONCERNED COMMUNITY)

Fixing the police needs to start at the top

The absence of experience or knowledge of policing sets the SAPS up for failure
national inspectorate. This inspectorate was crucial for internal police accountability , as it undertook inspections at police stations to ensure that they adhered to SAPS rules and regulations. However, Selebi appointed a person the Public Service Commission had previously recommended be removed from his post for gross incompetence and failure to perform his duties following an investigation into misconduct. The national inspectorate collapsed and many stations went for years without being inspected. Other poor appointments made it abundantly clear throughout the SAPS that under Selebi, promotion to the top was based on political and personal loyalties and had little to do with professionalism or integrity . As highly skilled senior managers left and others were ignored, a number of additional strategic blunders occurred. For example, Selebi shut down the important area management tier that was responsible for overseeing management functions and operations of clusters of police stations. This went along with the consideration would be given to the appointment of the new SAPS commissioner. Unfortunately , this was not to be the case and President Jacob Zuma appointed his friend and political ally Bheki Cele. Once again the SAPS was saddled with a head who had no policing experience and thought that the job simply required tough talk. Again, questionable appointments were made, and poorly considered policies implemented. To emphasise the maximum force doctrine that started to take root in the thinking of our political leaders, military ranks were reintroduced and shoot to kill political rhetoric became commonplace. Eventually, Cele was fired by Zuma following a board of inquiry that found he acted unlawfully in a R1.7 billion police headquarter lease deal and was unfit for the position. To date, the recommendation by the inquiry that he be criminally investigated for his role in this fraudulent deal has gone unheeded by the president. So, too, were the findings that two very senior police officers had attempted to mislead the board

MATTER FOR DEBATE: Former commissioners Jackie Selebi and Bheki Cele and commissioner Rhia Phiyega.
disbandment or decentralisation of a number of important specialised police structures such as the SAPS anti-corruption unit; the murder and robbery units; the family , child and sexual offences (FCS) units and the public order policing units. With the neglect and weakening of specialised detective units, house and business robberies soared so that between 2006 and 2009 these crimes had increased by 100 percent and 296 percent respectively . The SAPS has only recently reestablished the FCS units and is still struggling with public order policing, as the Marikana massacre so tragically highlighted. When Selebi was finally forced out of the police after being convicted of corruption, many thought that these lessons would have been learnt and that more careful

while under oath and that for the sake of the integrity of the service, this was disturbing and should not be overlooked. It is therefore not too surprising that most indicators highlight ongoing and widespread problems with the police. Consider the following: Between 2006 and 2009, the number of people shot dead by the police doubled from 281 cases to 556. This happened despite crime having decreased by almost 20 percent between 2002 and 2006. The national spokesman of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, Moses Dlamini, publicly stated during a national radio programme on March 4 this year that over the past 12 months, there is a pattern of abuse, according to an assessment of complaints against the police. Total civil claims against the police for abuses, including wrongful arrests and destruction of property , has more than doubled in the past two years to R14.7bn. The 2012 National Victims of Crime Survey reveals police corruption is the second most experienced form of public sector corruption and has increased since 2011. Less than half the adult population trust the police (42 percent) and 66 percent think corruption is a widespread problem in the police. While there are many excellent police officers throughout the SAPS, there are also far too many that should not be in an organisation. Fortunately , the National Development Plan (NDP) clearly recognises that as a consequence of a leadership crisis the SAPS cannot become the well-respected professional police agency it could be. The NDP therefore recommends that a national policing board consisting of multisectoral and multidisciplinary expertise be established to set standards for recruiting, selecting, appointing and promoting police managers and officials. Most importantly , the NDP recommends that the SAPS national commissioner and the deputies must only be appointed following a competitive selection process that assesses candidates against objective criteria. The president would then make the appointment from the vetted shortlist of proven professionals. Indeed, this will prevent a situation where the senior leaders of the SAPS are unable to give the necessary strategic and ethical guidance required to professionalise the SAPS, as has been the case to date. Until the NDP recommendations are implemented properly , budget allocations to the SAPS will be spent on poorly considered policing strategies that are not rooted in international or local best practice. Frustrated and demoralised police officials will continue to engage in corruption and other acts of misconduct. Public mistrust of the police will continue, thereby limiting the ability of the organisation to reduce crime. South Africa has the resources, people and expertise to substantially improve policing. Lets hope that the countrys leadership also realises this and implements the recommendations of the NDP as a matter of urgency . Gareth Newham is head of the Governance, Crime and Justice Division at the Institute for Security Studies. This article also appears on the ISS website at www.issafrica.org

Dont sacrifice human rights to fight crime

NOOSHIN ERFANI-GHADIMI
POLICE brutality has become a staple ingredient of the front page in South Africa. Last week the nation was shocked by the acquittal of seven police officers accused of killing Free State resident Andries Tatane in April 2011. Tatane died when the police shot him with rubber bullets and beat him with batons during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg. Footage showing the assault was broadcast nationally , but magistrate Hein van Niekerk of the Ficksburg Regional Court ruled that the State could not prove its case against the officers beyond reasonable doubt. The acquittal doesnt give the public much confidence that justice will be done in other recent cases of police brutality , like that of a court interpreter who was allegedly dragged by a moving police van while held by the neck by the police officer inside. According to News24, the man had angered the police by offering advice to a young suspect he had seen them harass. Another story , published in the Sowetan, was of a constable allegedly closing the window of a police van on a 20-year-old man, driving off, and leaving his body dragging behind. The man was reported to have died at the scene. One of the main reasons for police brutality , it has been argued, is that torture is not criminalised, nor is use of force defined or properly restricted. Most people are shocked to learn torture is not a crime in South Africa, even though it is outlawed by the constitution. South Africa ratified the UN Convention Against Torture in 1998, but has yet to domesticate the law. Why has it taken so long to pass such an obvious and necessary act? South Africans are still trying to deal with the shock and horror they felt when they saw the video footage of the other police dragging case: a taxi driver was handcuffed and dragged behind a police van, because he had parked on the wrong side of the road. Mido Macia was later found dead in a police holding cell. These shocking stories of police brutality come on top of the Marikana incident, where the footage of police firing on protesting miners was perceived by many as an awful flashback to the apartheid past, and served to scar our national psyche even more. The torture bill, in the works since 2003, has been tabled in Parliament and the National Assembly committee on justice and constitutional development has heard submissions on it from experts and civil society representatives.

KILLER COPS CAUGHT ON VIDEO: This frame grab shows how police abused taxi driver Mido Macia he was tied to a police van and dragged over 400m, only to face his death later in a cell.
PICTURE. DAILY SUN

Hopefully , the act will be passed soon. But even if it is passed into law tomorrow, its implementation (including adequate training) will take years, and that might be too late. The credibility and legitimacy of the police and by extension, our criminal justice system is being drained, and drastic and immediate steps are needed to stop this leakage. Our trust in those tasked with upholding law and order should be

earned and continually reinforced. A report published in the journal Regulation and Governance this year argues that in South Africa, police legitimacy is essential for effective crime control: we will cooperate and comply more if we believe the system is fair and we trust the police to be just, decent and respectful. This is especially so in South Africa where a baseline level of legitimacy of law enforcement has not had enough time to

develop. We dont have a deep well of other, good policing incidents to counteract the negative because our democracy is still so new. The Institute for Security Studies (ISS) analysis of the latest crime and arrest statistics paints an interesting picture. Even though there were 1.6 million arrests in 2011/12 (an increase of 11 percent from the year before), crime went up by 0.7 percent. The harsh, militarised approach to policing is clearly not

paying off. What is even more telling is that more than half of the arrests (52 percent) in 2011/12 were for crimes less serious than shoplifting. That includes loitering, drinking in public and urinating on the street. If our resources are being directed towards fighting loitering, instead of violent crime, then police effectiveness is reduced. If the police force is investing more than half of its capacity in fighting very minor forms of crime, this logically means that hard-core criminals are getting away with impunity and very minor offenders are encountering a police force that is not bound by anti-torture legislation. And every time someone is arrested for a petty crime, their attitude towards law enforcement and the criminal justice system hardens and they become more defiant. The ISS report attributes this to the trauma of being arrested, of being treated harshly by tough on crime police officers. Very few of such arrests make it to court, and if they do, the arrested person feels victimised by the system and outside of its protection and therefore its rules. This effect is considerably worsened by exposure to abuse and torture by state officials. The reported incidents of abuse are not isolated, nor are they a new

phenomenon. They are part of a pattern that we at the Wits Justice Project have begun to discern with distressing clarity . We regularly receive reports of torture, brutality and apartheid-era tactics by both police and prison warders, embedded in what seems to be a growing culture of impunity . Abuse of force and torture by officials should never be tolerated. Such incidents contribute to a weakening of the entire criminal justice system. They devalue the legitimacy of the police and the trust we each should be able to place in our law enforcement officials. In a country that has fought so hard for its constitution and for equal human rights for all, such attitudes are tragic. We must not sacrifice fairness, decency and respect in the fight against crime, because it will have the opposite effect. We need to stop thinking of torture and abuse of force in the abstract or as something that happens to other people, or to people who somehow deserve it. If a system allows for even one person to be abused or tortured, it cannot be relied on to protect the innocent and that person could be you. Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi is the project co-ordinator of the Wits Justice Project, which investigates miscarriages of justice and is based in the Department of Journalism at Wits University.