'Extend cop probe nationally'
January 16 2013 at 11:28am
By Clayton Barnes
By Clayton Barnes
Independent Newspapers
A third suspect has
been arrested for the kidnapping and killing of a Pretoria police officer,
police said. File photo.
Cape town - A senior crime researcher
at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has called for the probe into
police inefficiency in Khayelitsha to be extended to include the police service
nationally.
This comes after the Western Cape High
Court this week dismissed, with costs, an application by Police Minister Nathi
Mthethwa for the commission of inquiry into police inefficiency in Khayelitsha
to be suspended.
Dr Johan Burger, a senior researcher in
the ISS’s crime and justice programme, said a national judicial commission of
inquiry was the only answer to “a better police service, free of rot”.
“The high levels of alleged corruption,
criminality and inefficiencies in the South African Police Service have to be
investigated nationally. We are renewing our call for the president to
institute a national commission of inquiry into police inefficiency.”
The ISS first called for an inquiry in
2011, but was ignored, Burger said.
The Western Cape commission, headed by
retired Judge Catherine O’Regan, was suspended in November - a month after
being established by Premier Helen Zille - pending the outcome of the court
proceedings after Mthethwa approached the court.
Burger said he supported the Western
Cape commission and hoped that the recommendations would be implemented.
“A similar inquiry was set up in New
York in the 1980s, headed by Judge (Milton) Mollen.
The commission investigated allegations
of corruption and criminality and came up with good recommendations implemented
by new mayor at the time Rudy Giuliani. Today, the NYPD is one of the top
police units in America.”
In his 2011 request, The Case for a
Judicial Commission of Inquiry into the South African Police Service, Burger
said the widespread problems in the lower ranks of the police were not
surprising, given the serious allegations against the Police’s most senior
ranks.
Burger said a national commission of
inquiry would assist newly appointed police commissioner General Riah Phiyega
to understand the problems facing her force.
“The Police Ministry should stop seeing
a commission of inquiry as something negative.”
But Mthethwa has shot down Burger’s
request, calling him an “opportunist”.
Mthethwa’s spokesman Zweli Mnisi said
what Burger was calling for had “nothing to do with the latest Western Cape
court ruling” and should be dismissed.
clayton.barnes@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
