Police inefficiency complaint ‘brushed off’
April 1 2014 at 10:14am
XolaniKoyana
POLICE deputy provincial commissioner Major-General
Sharon Jephta has been portrayed by the Social Justice Coalition as an uncaring
public servant who “dismissed” a complaint of police inefficiency.
Jephta was the second high-ranking police official
in the province to give evidence before the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry
investigating alleged police inefficiencies in the area.
During yesterday’s sitting,
advocateNcumisaMayosi, representing the SJC and its
allies, raised the issue of a letter Jephta had addressed to then-head of the
police inspectorate Major-General Sean Tshaballa, in June 2012, seven months
after they had lodged a complaint with Premier Helen Zille.
In the letter, Jephta said there was no breakdown
between the Khayelitsha community and the police because the area had
functioning community police forums. She called on them to clarify their
allegations.
Mayosi said this response was uncaring and
careless. She said that based on a police task team report in 2012, CPFs at the
Harare and Site B Khayelitsha police stations were not functional, meaning
Jephta’s statement was incorrect.
Mayosi said an inspection report in 2011 at the
Harare Police Station showed that investigating officers were failing to give
feedback to complainants and that investigations into serious crimes were
poorly conducted. These shortcomings were recurring and appeared again on
inspections reports of 2012, Mayosi said.
She said Jephta had failed to perform her
constitutional obligation by not acting on them.
Jephta denied that her response was uncaring or
careless. She said it had been based on information from station commanders
that CPFs were functional at the time. Asked why she had not considered her own
inspection reports when responding to the complaint, Jephta said she did not
have them in front of her.
She said a meeting had been set up with the NGOs to
discuss the matter further but they had not attended it.
Provincial commissioner Arno Lamoer will appear
before the commission today.
xolani.koyana@inl.co.za
