The Crimes of the South African Police Service

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Thursday, December 29, 2011

Crimes of the South African Police Service

Cele’s brutal force
March 20 2011 at 06:10pm

________________________________________

Independent Newspapers
National police commissioner General Bheki Cele.
South African police are becoming more brutal by the day, with civil cases against them pushing the contingent liability budget to a whopping R7.5 billion in the last financial year.

The Sunday Tribune reveals today that the sharp spike in brutal action by the police has prompted the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) to investigate three times more severe assault cases last year than in 2001.

These revelations come as the country celebrates Human Rights Day tomorrow and against the backdrop of a recent case in which the police were accused of using excessive force on civilians.

Last month the police stormed a restaurant in Melville, Joburg, in the early hours and assaulted patrons. The incident was captured on closed-circuit TV cameras inside the Catz Pyjamas and it shocked the nation.

Police researchers and lawyers who specialise in litigating against the police have warned that anecdotal reports of giving electric shocks, suffocation and other apartheid-style torture methods have become more prevalent.

- CD statistics compiled by a Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) researcher indicate that:
- Since 2001/02 the number of assault investigations conducted by the ICD has trebled from 255 to 920 in 2009/10. Attempted murder cases it investigated have gone up over seven times from 43 in 2001/02 to 325 in the last financial year.
- The number of fatal shooting investigations was at an all-time high over the past two financial years – at 556 in 2008/09 and 524 in 2009/10. The figure is compared with 458 in 1997/08, 293 in 2002/03 and an all-time low of 281 in 2005/06.
And policing researchers say the spike in fatal shootings can be traced back to KwaZulu-Natal, where there has been a 173 percent increase in five years – from 75 in 2005/06 to 205 in 2009/10.

“These statistics raise the question of whether sections of the police in KwaZulu-Natal may have adopted an approach which is defined by the belief that extra-legal methods are not only justified, but in fact necessary to address violent crime,” writes David Bruce of the CSVR.

Police ministry spokesman Zweli Mnisi says Minister Nathi Mthethwa is “extremely concerned about the continuing allegations of police brutality”.

Mnisi says strengthening ICD legislation is the first step to curbing the problem.
“We would rather have the police on the ground, fighting crime than in court defending themselves for their alleged abuses of civilians,” said Mnisi.
Meanwhile, the courts are flooded with civil cases against the police that have pushed the contingent liability budget to R2bn more than the 2005/06 financial year when the police were prepared to pay R5.3bn for assault, damage to property, shooting incidents and other “police actions”.

The police say the amount is deliberately set high, and “not all of it was utilised”.

“When you plan for possible lawsuits, it is best to have more in your budget, but it does not necessarily imply you will utilise the whole amount. So in cases where it has not been fully utilised or lesser lawsuits were brought against the police, it will then be directed to (other) programmes,” said Mnisi.

The Tribune has found a number of civil cases lodged in the Joburg and Pretoria High courts in which the applicants claim the police assaulted, gave electric shocks or suffocated them, and they demand compensation.

The taxpayer carries the burden of paying for the police’s excessive use of force.
While individual cases are not astronomical, with cost awards added, they can mount up.

- Edwin Molokomme claims to have been assaulted, suffocated and given electric shocks at the Wierdabrug police station in Pretoria, before being “forced to sign an admission statement” on February 7, 2007.

- Chiza Ndaba claims to have been bundled into the boot of his car by members of the police in Worcester in the Western Cape, kicked repeatedly and pepper-sprayed on March 19, 2008.

- Isaac Sibiya claims that after his arrest on August 18, 2007 by Vosloorus police on the East Rand, he was beaten so badly he was later admitted to hospital at the Natalspruit Hospital for more than a month.

- Zipho Ndlovu claims Midrand police hooded him, placed him in a torture position and subjected him to electric shocks on May 27, 2010.
- Sifiso Makhubu claims the Diepkloof police smothered, sjambokked and shocked him on November 14, 2009.

While these cases have yet to be tested in court, the ICD is concerned about the resurgence of heavy-handed tactics among the police, saying it has received “numerous reports of unwarranted attacks on civilians by police officers attached to special units”.

“These acts cannot be tolerated in a constitutional democracy.
“Policing in 2011 should be totally different from the apartheid past that we come from.

“Police officers should uphold the rule of law and not be the ones accused of breaking it,” said ICD executive director Francois Beukman.
The outcry came after video footage emerged of police Tactical Response Team (TRT) members barging into Melville bar, the Catz Pyjamas, and assaulting patrons.
The ICD says it is investigating the incident along with another, also involving TRT members, which took place at CJs Pub in Hillbrow.

Wits Law Clinic lawyer Peter Jordi says: “There is a level of criminality within the police much higher than the police will admit.”
Jordi has specialised in civil prosecutions against the police for more than 25 years and says, while he is not against them, he wants “the police to do a good job”.

“I saw, anecdotally, that there was a lot of torture going on in the early 1990s. This is of ordinary criminal suspects. Then there was a diminution and now torture is definitely back at full throttle. It is happening all over the place. They torture you at the drop of a hat about nothing.”

Bruce, who studied ICD statistics from as far back as 1997, says statistics of fatalities in police custody are the most reliable and concerning.
He believes there could be hundreds more incidents of common assault at the hands of the police that are not being reported. - Tribune
HTTP://WWW.IOL.CO.ZA/NEWS/SOUTH-AFRICA/CELE-S-BRUTAL-FORCE-1.1044575

Crimes of the South African Police Service

1. POLICE BRUTALITY IN SOUTH AFRICA: WHEN THE SHEEP DOGS TURN ON THE SHEEP
What do you think will happen if a white man simply walks up to a black woman shoots her at point blank range and kills her? Would they call him a racist? Would the media have it as main news as a sign of a racist killing?

Now imagine a white policeman did something like that during the Apartheid years…There would be an outcry all over the world.

Two days ago this exact scenario played off East of Johannesburg. A White Afrikaans woman called Jeanette Odendaal (45) went to the police station at around 20h30 to lay a charge of disturbing the peace where she lived just a few blocks down the drag at Aston Manor.

Upon her arrival a Black self appointed “car guard” (Sipho Baloyi), of which there are millions nowadays in SA jumped at the opportunity to make a quick 50 cents by offering to help her park.

During the parking she accidently bumped her little VW Golf against a parked police vehicle. Sipho went inside and told the cops what happened. A tall Black Sergeant walked outside saw the white woman, drew his weapon and shot her several times at point blank range, in cold blood in front of witnesses. He then dragged her out of her car onto the pavement, probably to claim later that she attacked him.

The witness, Sipho then pleaded with the policeman to call an ambulance. The policeman replied, “What for? She is dying and as good as dead already…”

The officer was arrested later. Police did not allow reporters to view the cars.

Just the other day the ANC police beat, shot and killed an unarmed Black opposition party supporter Andries Tatane in Ficksburg.

The incident was broadcasted on national television and shocked the nation. Tatane was a 33 year old teacher and disillusioned former ANC member who left them and got involved with COPE and other opposition activists…like most former ANC supporters nowadays.

These are not isolated incidents. Two other police brutality cases were before KwaZulu-Natal courts on Tuesday. In Greytown five policemen allegedly strangled a person in custody. In Hammarsdale 15 policemen are accused of beating a suspect to death.

…But the functionally illiterate former kitchen and polish boy, now President Jacob Zuma, who only learned to read and write from his communist warlord and mass murderer buddy of the Natal Midlands Harry Gwala, whilst they were in prison on Robben Island, reckons that these are indeed isolated incidents. Zuma says Police Brutality cases are isolated incidents

Here is onother incident of police brutality with photo against a black night club owner in Cape Town…everything caught on CCTV camera.

A few weeks ago four cops brutally assaulted patrons at the Catz Pajamas Restaurant in Mellville, everything also caught on shocking CCTV footage. The video can be seen below along with the killing of Tatane’s video.

Isolated incidents my arse. This is becoming daily occurences.

What is the story here?

In Psychology there are two famous experiments namely the Milgram experiment
and the Zimbardo experiment that proves that when seemingly ordinary people are put in a position of power and absolved from accountability that they will turn into monsters.

I once wrote an article on how the entire New South Africa is one giant Zimbardo experiment

This is exactly what the ANC has done. They have appointed Bheki Cele, a corrupt Mafioso wannabee Snoop Dog pimp type Black man in charge of the police as the National Police Commissioner. They have put him above the law and he went on and ordered the police to shoot to kill and ask questions later

This is the half literate under trained SA Police Service with R5 automatic rifles and CZ 9mm pistols in their hands.

In his book, “On Killing” Lt. Col. Grossman, a military psychologist relates the function of police to that of Sheep, Wolves and Dogs. He says that ordinary people are for the most part sheep. The criminals are the wolves and the police are the sheep dogs.

The public do not always like the sheep dogs because they look too much like wolves and can behave just as aggressively, but when the actual wolves come for them then they quickly hide behind the sheep dogs.

The sheep dogs have to behave aggressively to keep the wolves at bay and protect the sheep.

One thing that the sheep dogs are NEVER allowed to do is to turn on the sheep and bite or kill a sheep. If a sheep dog attacks a sheep, he should be removed immediately and put out of his misery. This is normally done by the shepherd, the government.

This is what is happening here in South Africa. The ANC police are turning on the public. They are not fighting crime and criminals; they are assaulting and killing the public…innocent citizens...black and white. But in our case the shepherd is not only looking on, he is enticing the sheep dogs, spurring them on to assault and kill the sheep...and ask questions later.

The question is then…”Who will remove the shepherd from power?”

Only the sheep can do that. The sheep will have to revolt, but the sheep are too dumb to do it, so they will need some pigs like Snowball and Napoleon in “Animal Farm”…the book by George Orwell.

The ANC should wake up and learn from recent history. They forget how Idi Amin, Ferdinand Marcos, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, etc. were humiliated and kicked out of their countries…by the very sheep their sheepdogs attacked.

The ANC should decide how they want to end up.

Maybe the ANC leadership should also remember how their great East German Stasi hero Erich Mielke died a lonely man in a Berlin nursing home, some say less that a 100 people attended his funeral…Probably just to go spit on his grave...

Something drastic needs to be done to curb the current state of police lawlessness.
Not everyone is cut out to be a policeman..and its imperative that Psychometric Tests be done to ensure or at least try and isolate the crack pots entering the police force.

http://mspoliticalcommentary.blogspo...rica-when.html

Crimes of the South African Police Service

SAPS POLICE BRUTALITY

HTTP://NEWS.BBC.CO.UK/2/HI/AFRICA/336149.STM

Crimes of the South African Police Service

By Mike Smith
3rd of December 2011

Here is a report of a white woman, her 62 year old mother and the kiddies who were involved in a fender bender and assaulted by black cops.

You can see the arrogance of these bastards who think they are above the law. The Metro Police in South Africa is well known as corrupt scum who often extorts bribes from people.

But sometimes they mess with the wrong person, as in the case of Bees Roux who killed one in self defence.

Daily these cops go around slapping white women and the elderly to extort bribes from them. They are nothing but corrupt filth. It is at times like this that I wish I could be there. God only knows how I hate these pigs. I pray every day for the change to wreak revenge on their asses.

Read the original article at this Link but take note of the full story as told by the daughter in the comment section.

Elderly woman kept in police cells after ‘slapping’ officer

A 62-year-old woman who allegedly assaulted a metro police officer after a bumper bashing on Monday morning, spent almost a day in police cells.

Mrs Thelma Standring Keane (62) appeared in Kempton Park Magistrate's Court the following day and was released on her own accountability,

Keane and her daughter Bronwyn were in the car when the accident occurred.

It is alleged that Bronwyn wanted to take the officers' names and was pushed and her hands were smacked.

Keane apparently tried to take a photograph of an officer's name badge and he allegedly pushed her, after which she apparently slapped him.
POSTED BY MIKE SMITH AT 9:38 AM 1 COMMENTS
HTTP://MSPOLITICALCOMMENTARY.BLOGSPOT.COM/

Crimes of the South African Police Service

from: LA Times
REPORTING FROM JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA -- A South African government minister reportedly spends the equivalent of nearly $70,000 of taxpayer money on a trip to Switzerland to visit his girlfriend in jail (facing drug charges), then tells the president that he was on official business.

Now that was embarrassing. (He's been on sick leave since February).
Then there was the minister and the police chief who were implicated in an unlawful deal to lease police buildings at inflated prices, which cost taxpayers more than $250 million.

You're a JOKE!!!!!

Crimes of the South African Police Service

Afriforum was contacted after constable Angelique Kok, an Afrikaner police woman, was allegedly cursed by Brig Ndebele for “not driving with her blue lights on” when they were on patrol Friday-night in Sunnyside, Pretoria.

Ndebele was in a police car next to hers and yelled out the window. The young female constable then stopped her vehicle and climbed out - gesturing to Mrs Ndebele to repeat her comments because she couldn't hear them properly while driving.
Ndebele was in another car with a police-colonel. Ndebele then walked over to constable Kok's car, took the keys from the police vehicle's ignition and climbed back into her own car with the colonel. Constable Kok then went to Brig Ndebele's vehicle asking for her keys back as her police-dog was not allowed to remain alone in the vehicle.

Ndebele responded by telling Kok “don't you salute the colonel?”. Kok responded by saying that she had 'not seen the colonel' (it was at night), but then Mrs Ndebele snarled at the young Afrikaner police officer: “You think you are special because of your skin colour, because you are white”.

W/O Kok's police car was then driven away from the site by someone else. This occurred at a notorious prostitution spot on the corner of Schoeman and Wessel Streets in Sunnyside.

The young police constable was left standing alone without any transportation or any other colleagues. She was carrying only her police-revolver.

Kelder said: “Police management claims to be so worried because so many police-officers are being murdered, but then an SAPS-brigadier leaves a young female constable, armed only with her service pistol, alone amongst a bunch of drunk men and prostitutes”.

W/o Kok had to contact a friend to come and fetch her. She was so traumatised by the racial abuse and the entire experience that she's undergoing psychiatric counselling. W/o Kok, accompanied by Mr Kelder, placed a charge of crimen injuria at the Lyttelton-police station in Centurion.

This was confirmed by SAPS capt Pinky Tsinyane, provincial police spokesman. “The police are aware of the case. Once the investigation is complete, the dossier will be referred to the directorate of public prosecutions for a decision whether the case will be prosecuted in the courts, or not”, Tsinyane said.
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Crimes of the South African Police Service

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Crimes of the South African Police Service

Just some links describing SA Police Brutality:

Below we detail two new incidents of police-brutality — just the latest in a long line of criminal offences by unsupervised, out-of-control or at times, just plain stupid police officers. Use the search engine on this site to locate all the stories – one more horrific than the next: and all targetting whites.
AmnestyWarnsOfSAPoliceBrutality

-PretoriaCopsBrutality –

CopAttacksAgainstWhitesSurge –
copsBecomingViolentCriminals –
BrutalityCops2008Archives –
DisabledBoercouplebludgeonedByCops

June 17 2011 Acacia – Four Afrikaans youths assaulted, shot at, kicked by Soshanguve cops, cursed as ‘criminals’ and ‘hijackers’ – for just strolling along the roadside –
when just strolling along the road:

Yesterday-afternoon I heard the personal account from four Afrikaans youths who were brutally assaulted while walking on the Brits Road in the Acacia policing-district – after buying cigarettes on June 17, 2011 at 2am.

The four matric-friends from the Gerrit Maritz Afrikaans high school in the Acacia policing district of Pretoria were walking well away from the kerb, on the other side of a pallisade fence next to a dam. One of them, Armand Janse van Rensburg, 17, had just gone through the gate and was the only one standing at the kerbsidem waiting for his friends to join him. Suddenly a vehicle came screeching up to him, terrifying the youngster so much that he scaled the pallisade fence in great panic– believing they were being attacked by criminals. Both his hands were pierced while doing this. (picture below, after treatment at Montana hospital). Armand hid hid behind the fence while his three friends, amongst them their spokesman Martin Fourie, 17, who spoke to me yesterday, were accosted by two men who jumped out, armed. They did not identify themselves as police officers. The road was very dark and deserted at that time of night and visibility was very poor.

The boys said that one of the armed men was white, one was black. They fired a shot towards three Afrikaner youths and ordered them to lie down. Armand was hiding behind the fence – in pain from his pierced hands. A shot was fired by one of the men and they summonsed the three youths to lie down on the pavement, cursing and screaming insults at them. Only then did the youths realise that the men had arrived in what looked like a police vehicle. The black police-officer then proceeded to kick and hit the three terrified youngsters for a long time. Mr Fourie emphasized that specifically the black police officer – who never identified himself as a cop– took the lead in kicking and assaulting them, cursing them for ‘criminals’ and ‘hijackers’ and demanding to know ‘where the dagga was’.

The youngsters protested in vain that they had no drugs, that they had simply gone to buy some cigarettes, that they certainly were not ‘hijackers’. They just kept on being beaten, kicked, accused and yelled at., said Fourie in a telephone interview with me.

Armand went to stand next to the police vehicle where the white police officer was watching the black colleague assault the three Afrikaner youths: who were Martin Fourie, as well as Jan-Hendrik and Juandre. (last names not disclosed).The officers both spoke Afrikaans to the youngsters. Their ordeal lasted more than an hour while they were being kicked, cursed for ‘criminals’ and assaulted. Eventually the two cops called for reinforcement and a whuite police officer who identified himself as w/o Ras Hamilton of the Soshanguve Dog Unit also showed up. Martin Fourie said he was being threatened with a gun by one of the first two officers when he demanded to have their names and ranks given to him.

Martin Fourie: “It was ludicrous to accuse us of being hijackers. We weren’t anywhere near a car and in any case three of us were walking behind the pallisade fence on the other side of the roadway at the time their car pulled up – and we had no access to the road, while Armand was the only one who had already gone through the gate. There was no reason for these police-officers to act this way and point their gun at us. We were unarmed and their lives never were in any danger from us,’ said Fourie.

When w/o Hamilton showed up he roughly told the three youngsters to ‘fk off’ home’ and told the two cops to take the injured Armand home so that he could get treatment for his hands. The parents took him to Montana Hospital in the early-morning hours.
The youngsters were so traumatised that they were then too terrified to notify the local police of the incident: instead they contacted a police officer in Sunnyside to take their submission. Thus the case initially was registered at the Sunnyside PD and transferred to Acacia.The young Afrikaners are badly traumatised by the incident, all four suffer nightmares and pain from the internal injuries they incurred during the kickings and the beatings. They have also contact Afriforum to obtain legal advice.

Armand Janse van Rensburg’s hands: pierced by pallisade fence as he fled in fear from the cops

June 22 2011 – Armando Mourao – arrested at the airport, just about to board a plane to Lisbon with his family: Randburg police were ‘looking for a black man’ – but Mr Mourao is white: so the family had to buy new tickets for August 4… and are terrified that it will happen again.

Message from aarm@telkomsa.net — Hi, my name is Armando and I think I might have a good story. On the 22nd of June 2011 at about 18.00 I was about to travel to Lisbon with my family when I got stopped a Passport Control. I was sent to the police station where I was arrested for no reason whatsoever. After a bit of argument with the police they told me that that I “had been arrested for fraud: .

I phone my family to let them now that I was not going to make the flight with them because I was arrested. They decided that they were not going to travel any longer because they wanted to help me. I ask them to get me legal advice as I did not know what was happening.They immediately got some legal advice. I was taken to a cell at OR Tambo airport waiting to be transferred to the Honeydew police station, and waiting for the police to arrive. It was then decided to take me to the Randburg police station, where I was driven from OR Tambo to the middle of town in Johannesburg via Commissioner and then turn onto Rissik Street where the driver stop to pick up some one at the City hall .

When we arrived at the police station in Randburg my attorney was already there to help me. I spoke very briefly with my legal representative and my family.They assured me that they will help me and I assured them that I did not know anything of what was happening.There was a “case against me”. They got hold of the detective that was handling the case to clarify the matter. The detective in question has told my attorney that he was on the way to the station to resolve the matter. After a 2 hours wait and several calls from my attorney to him he has decide not to go to the station and put off his phone or was not taking calls from my attorney.

I was forced to stay in a cell with other 8 prisoners, which I did not know what kind of people they were. I could not sleep. At about 2 or 3 in the morning my attorney told me that ‘there was nothing they could do for me but wait until 8.30 for the Court be open and then present my case to the Judge’.

‘ My ‘file’ was missing: but they were looking for a black person: and I am white’:
While in Court they got to know that the police and the detectives in Honeydew could not find the file where I was charged for. After a few hours the file was then found and brought to the police station in Randburg. I was then called from the cell to the office in front where there was 3 detectives waiting for me. For their big surprise they could not believed when they saw me and then opened the file.

I am a white person and the person that they were looking for was a black person. After 10 or 15 minutes I was then released after spending 18 hours in prison for a crime that I did not committed and a mistake from the police where they had a totally different person from what the file said.
We lost all our money: we had paid for the family’s tickets to Lisbon – and now we have to buy them again…

We then drove to Honeydew police station to get an affidavit from me as well some form stating that the circulation from the police for “my arrest is invalid”. My family and I try to fly the next day after losing all the money that we have paid for our tickets.

We had to buy new tickets. I was then too scared to travel as my ID number is still on the computers where they are going arrest me again. And it will take up to 3 months for my name to be cleared from the data base. “
• I plan to travel again on 4 August 2011 but I am scared to do so. I can not sleep at night. Please help so that this situation will not happen again to me or to anyone else!

censorbugbear-reports.blogspot.com

Crimes of the South African Police Service

Amnesty alert over SA police brutality
10:06 | Posted by Censorbugbear |
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Amnesty International flags SA police brutality

Amnesty International’s Report 2011 has flagged police torture, deaths in custody, extrajudicial killings and threats to the work of human rights defenders as matters of concern in South Africa. It cited Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) figures for April 2009 to March last year, which recorded five direct complaints against the police of torture and 920 complaints of assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm by the police - and only some of which were being investigated for evidence of torture. Seven of 294 deaths in custody were linked to torture and 90 others to “injuries sustained in custody”.

The ICD also investigated 24 complaints of rape by police officers.
Also of concern to Amnesty were proposed changes to the Criminal Procedures Act that would allow police to use deadly force against a suspect resisting or fleeing arrest, where they believe there is a risk of “future death” if the suspect escapes. This, it noted, allowed for the use of deadly force “in circumstances beyond those allowed by international human rights standards”.

ONS SAL DIT OORLEEF
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVJHjXKvLCY&feature=player_embedded
The report also raised concerns over threats to freedom of expression and the work of human rights defenders.

It cited, among others, the trial of 12 supporters of housing rights movement Abahlali baseMjondolo on charges relating to violence in the Kennedy Road informal settlement in 2009 and the unlawful arrest of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika after his reports on an alleged hit squad linked to senior Limpopo provincial government members.

Also of concern were ANC proposals for a media appeals tribunal and the tabling of the “draconian” Protection of Information Bill.
Amnesty International did not however condemn the ongoing genocide of the Afrikaners under the ANC regime.
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/amnesty-red-flag-police-brutality-1.1068706

Crimes of the South African Police Service

Locnville 'assaulted by police'
2011-06-09 10:00

Cape Town – Electro pop duo Locnville were reportedly assaulted by police in the early hours on Thursday, reports Kfm.

Locnville tweeted: "Locnville was just assaulted by police officers!!!"

According to Kfm, Locnville brothers Brian and Andrew Chaplin were at a petrol station with a friend in Claremont, Cape Town, when a group of people confronted them.

The group reportedly made comments about Locnville's music and started a fight.

Police then intervened, maced Brian in the face and punched their friend.

Their Facebook page said the following: "Locnville was just assaulted by the SAPS!!!!! Brian was maced and our best friend punched in the face by the fucking police!!!!! Can you believe it????? What happened to South Africa????"

Locnville admitted that they had been drinking, but said they did not start the fight.

Attempts to get comment have so far been unsuccessful. More information to follow.
- Channel24
http://www.channel24.co.za/Music/News/Locnville-assaulted-by-police-20110609

Crimes of the South African Police Service

Knysna police ordered to meet arrest quotas
Katherine Wilkinson

Knysna police say they have been ordered to meet quotas for arrests, with one member having gone so far as to make out a sworn affidavit to that effect.

Although police have asked not to be named as they are fearful of repercussions, this reporter has seen a full copy of the affidavit and was then given a copy in which details identifying the policeman who wrote it have been removed.

In the affidavit, he stated he was called into the police station and told all Knysna police officers have to meet arrest quotas:
He said he was told that “all four shifts at the station have to arrest ± 200 ‘B’ crimes, 15 drug related crimes and 12 drunken driving so he is asking me to participate in this as I am behind and may be charged with Regulation 64 if I fail to meet my targets per month (sic).”

He stated that he told his officer he was busy with complaints and that he had conducted “some stop and searches” with “no luck”.
“He then told me that other people have done it and that I just have to do better.”
A further two Knysna policemen who also spoke on condition of anonymity, confirmed the arrest quota system in Knysna.

One said, “Quotas for arrests has been going on for years now. I don’t believe in it because you are not doing it for the sake of society. Statistics are a good thing, but they are there to guide you on how to police properly. The police have made statistics the alpha and omega of crime fighting.”
His colleague said: “The quota system is in place, for a long time, for a hell of a long time.”

The practice of arrest quotas is specifically condemned in the SAPS Criminal Procedure Act.

South African Police Union (SAPU) Secretary of the Western Cape, Billy Daniels said on Thursday the matter of arrest quotas had been taken up with the Knysna police station about four years ago, but not recently. He said he understood the practice had ceased.

“It has never been raised with me recently. I spoke to the shop steward at Knysna and the area shop steward, they are completely unaware there has been any problem like that.”

SAPS Southern Cape spokesperson, Captain Malcolm Pojie said he would need to get legal advice before answering any questions on the topic.
Police Internal Complaints Directorate (ICD) spokesperson Moses Dlamini said the ICD was not aware of the practice.

“It would be helpful for the police officer to make himself available for an interview with the ICD with a view to get more details and to determine what course of action should be taken in this matter.”

Western Cape MEC for Safety and Security Lennit Max’s spokesperson, Jo Lennox said, “The Minister’s response re the officer’s claim is that it’s a serious allegation as it goes against the objective of policing which is the prevention of crime.

“In order for him to take the matter up with the Provincial Police Commissioner he will need to see the affidavit and the officer’s name must be disclosed.
“He can then take the matter up with General (Mzwandile) Petros.”

The Knysna police station is under investigation by the ICD in connection with the alleged rape of a Plettenberg Bay guest house owner by police on February 6. She said she was raped in a police vehicle while being held down by a second policeman. She said she managed to escape while the policemen were swopping places. To date no arrests have been made.

She said she had been told by “senior officers of the police in Knysna” that police knew the identity of the “culprits” based on identikits she had helped to compile.
“But not one of them is willing to come forward as a witness or to say a single thing of the events of that night.

“Apparently, they have been instructed not to talk about the incident at all.”
One of the policemen involved in the investigation feared for his safety, she claimed.

“A police member involved with the investigation has advised me that he trusts nobody in the Knysna Police Services and that he fears for his life and that of his family.”

Furthemore, while in Knysna during March to investigate the alleged rape, the ICD arrested three Knysna policemen for murder.
Dlamini said at the time, “The ICD has arrested three police officers who are based at Knysna police station for murder. . .The deceased died in hospital from injuries sustained during arrest by police officers from Knysna police station. – West Cape News
http://westcapenews.com/?p=1454

Crimes of the South African Police Service

Police assault caught on camera
2011-05-02 11:05

Pretoria - Pretoria police officers have been caught on CCTV cameras kicking and punching an unarmed man, Beeld reported on Monday.
Theuns Potgieter, 33, of Silverton had gone to a petrol station in Gezina around 21:00 on Thursday, April 21, to get two flat tyres repaired.

He had his firearm tucked into the back of his pants, but did not have his licence with him.

CCTV footage shows police officers arriving at the station and walking over to where Potgieter and his friend are talking to another man in the workshop area.

"Even before they asked me I took out my gun and put it on the car's engine cover. The police told us to lie down. I raised my arms and lay down," he was quoted as saying.

Resisting arrest

Another man, presumably a plain-clothes policeman, then walks up to Potgieter and kicks him in the stomach several times as officers in uniform look on. He then stomps on his head, punches him in the face and kicks him in the stomach again.

A uniformed officer then kicks Potgieter. While he is being handcuffed, the first policeman kicks him again. He was taken to the Pretoria Moot police station, accused of possession of an unlicensed firearm, pointing a firearm and resisting arrest.

Potgieter was taken to hospital after vomiting blood and passing blood in his urine. After he was discharged he appeared in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court where he was released on bail of R2 000. While in custody, it was confirmed that he was the lawful owner of the gun.

According to Potgieter, police refused to help him open an assault case against the officers.

Gauteng police spokesperson Colonel Neville Malila told Beeld: "... such alleged conduct by police members cannot be tolerated".

The matter was being viewed in a serious light and would be investigated, he said.

Potgieter's beating was the third case of alleged police violence in two weeks. Last week Jeanette Odendaal was shot dead, allegedly by a police sergeant, as she sat in her car outside the Kempton Park police station, after apparently having bumped into a police van while parking.

Andries Tatane was killed during a protest in Ficksburg. He was allegedly shot at point-blank range with rubber bullets and beaten with rubber truncheons.
- SAPA
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Police-assault-caught-on-camera-20110502

Crimes of the South African Police Service

ICD probes police brutality report
2011-05-03 14:14

Johannesburg - The Independent Complaints Directorate is looking into a Daily Sun report on Tuesday that two teenage girls and their aunt were assaulted for five hours by police in Mpumalanga in February.

"I've contacted our provincial office," ICD spokesperson Moses Dlamini said on Tuesday morning.

He was still waiting for more information.

"We don't have anything concrete yet," said Dlamini.

The Daily Sun reported that police officers kicked and punched the two teenage girls and their aunt.

This resulted in one of the teenagers, who is 16-years-old, suffering a collapsed lung. She was now dependent on an oxygen tank to breathe, said the newspaper.
The aunt, Tina Vungande, 30, told the Daily Sun: "The cops forced their way into my house at Matsulu, near Mbombela in Mpumalanga and said they had come to search but wouldn't tell me what they were looking for.

"They turned the house upside down and when I asked if they had found what they were looking for, they called me a whore and began beating me up.

"That was when Cassandra and her 13-year-old sister Zinhle walked in and asked why they were beating me. Then the cops began beating her as well.

"They hurled all three of us into a police van and took us to the police station where the beating continued."

The three were later released by the police.

She said most of their clothes and cash were stolen by the police officers.

Mpumalanga police spokesperson Leonard Hlathi confirmed to the Daily Sun that Vungande had laid charges against the police.
- SAPA
http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/ICD-probes-police-brutality-report-20110503-3

Crimes of the South African Police Service

South African 'most wanted' criminal slips from police custody on crutches
One of South Africa's most wanted criminals made the most mundane of escapes when he slipped from police custody by walking out of a Pretoria courtroom door along with members of the public.

Bongani Moyo.
By Aislinn Laing, Southern Africa Correspondent
5:01PM BST 10 Aug 2011

Bongani Moyo, 29, a Zimbabwean national who was arrested this year after a much publicised manhunt where his picture was plastered over nationwide media, was due at a hearing related to the armed robbery of 35 banks.
Described by police as a "dangerous criminal" in the Crime Line appeal, he was arrested at the Beitbridge border with Zimbabwe after escaping from Boksburg prison in March.

Police spokesman Captain Katlego Mogale admitted that Mr Moyo had also been on crutches when he escaped from court.
"He was not locked up inside the cell and or in shackles. He was sitting between court 16 and 17 and escaped through court 16," he told local newspaper The Mail & Guardian.

The Department of Correctional Services, which placed Mr Moyo under police care for the hearing, had a few choice words about his escape.

More from The Telegraph

"He was picked up by the police so he could go to court, and escaped under the nose of the police," spokesman Phumlani Ximiya said. "We warned the police that this person had escaped before and therefore they should tighten their security."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/africaandindianocean/southafrica/8693729/South-African-most-wanted-criminal-slips-from-police-custody-on-crutches.html
The Telegraph Uk