Community ‘hamstrung’ by
police
February 5 2014 at 07:04pm
By Chantall Presence
By Chantall Presence
INDEPENDENT
NEWSPAPERS
Advocate
Vusi Pikoli and Commision chair Judge Kate O'Regan during the hearings at
Khayelitsha's commission of inquiry.
Cape Town - The
Western Cape community safety department has become a mere postbox for
complaints against the police, the Khayelitsha Commission of Inquiry heard on
Wednesday.
“We were no
more than a postbox... we could not rapidly reply to complaints,” department
head Gilbert Lawrence testified.
He recounted
how he and his officials clashed with the SA Police Service on the
interpretation of their oversight role in policing.
Section 206 (3)
allows provinces to monitor police conduct and play an oversight role.
Lawrence said
that prior to 2010, his officials would receive complaints and would ask police
for answers.
In addition,
his officials would make unannounced visits to police stations in response to
complaints from community members.
However, this
was not allowed after 2010.
“Our oversight
role... required that we should investigate complaints and be able to visit
police stations,” Lawrence said.
“The police
then said, this is how we interpret it. The net result was that complaints now
have to go to a nodal point.”
Lawrence
indicated the ability to monitor police and respond to complaints against
officers was curtailed.
The department
had become a mere postbox for such complaints.
It also lacked
jurisdiction in operational matters, which meant police could cite this as a
reason for not providing information on complaints.
Operational
matters are the day to day crime fighting capabilities of the police.
Norman Arendse,
for the police, accused Lawrence of failing to do his job despite having the
powers to investigate complaints.
Lawrence said
the confusion on what “oversight” meant was causing some of these failures.
“We would like
a definitive end to this so we know what we can do or can't do,” he said.
“The police
have tremendous powers. They can take away civil liberties... and they need to
be held accountable.”
The commission
was set up by Western Cape premier Helen Zille to probe accusations by civil
society formations that police inaction was leading to an increase in mob
justice killings in the area.
Its activities
were delayed for some time when Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa tried to have
the inquiry scrapped.
Mthethwa lost
his legal bid to stop the commission in the Constitutional Court in October
last year.
Sapa
