MPs find sorry state of police affairs
May 17 2013 at 03:12pm
By Louise Flanagan
By Louise Flanagan
Limpopo - When MPs visited Mahikeng
police station, they found in the overcrowded cells a teenager illegally held
for more than a year for “mental observation”.
At Orkney police station, they found a
trunk of guns that weren’t on the registers.
At Sekhukhune police station, dockets
were burnt in a domestic dispute.
The oversight visits to 10 police
stations in North West and Limpopo were made early last year by the portfolio
committee on police; the committee’s report was published in parliamentary
papers this week.
The committee visited Itsoseng,
Mahikeng, Stella, Potchefstroom and Orkney police stations in North West, and
Ohrigstad, Sekhukhune, Burgersfort, Mankweng and Polokwane police stations in
Limpopo.
While they noted that many police
members were doing their best under awful circumstances, they listed problems
of high case loads, weak management, poor control over guns, drugs and
archives, abuse of sick leave, discipline problems, lack of proper management
of detectives, and “appalling” treatment of detainees.
They found rats, bail registers not
kept properly, absenteeism linked to abuse of alcohol, and many members without
the authority to drive state vehicles.
At Mahikeng, 59 case dockets had
disappeared. The 36 detectives there were working on 4 201 dockets; the year
before, they closed 4 351 cases undetected.
Money was missing from the safe; the
thief used the safe keys. In Mahikeng’s cells they found contraband such as
shoelaces and medication.
One detainee was held for two years and
nine months. One was held for seven days without being charged until the
committee arrived. One was held for 17 months because a detective refused to
give him his ID book so that he could apply for bail. “There was an 18-year-old
who had been in the cell for one year and three weeks,” said the report.
At Itsoseng there were 26 criminal
cases involving police.
The 11 detectives had 16 registered
informants, six vehicles, two phone lines, one shared cellphone, no GPS and 1
051 open dockets. They were refused overtime pay.
At Stella police station, one of the
five detectives had not been at work for two years.
At Potchefstroom, the firearms register
was in disarray. “Firearms that were asked for were not found,” said the
report. The station said there were 67 guns in the store; the committee found
115.
At Potchefstroom, 128 members could
drive state vehicles while 102 members either did not have licences or the
authority to drive state vehicles.
At Orkney police station, a policeman’s
bulletproof vest was burnt by his wife. The committee found “a big trunk that
was full of firearms” but wasn’t on the registers.
Sekhukhune police station lost 37 files
when a task team member took them home and his wife burnt them in a domestic
dispute.
The committee called Burgersfort police
station “completely dysfunctional”.
Four members at the station were always
off sick.
Mankweng police station operated out of
park homes since 1985.
At Polokwane police station, 88
detectives worked 5 400 cases.
louise.flanagan@inl.co.za
The Star
