Thuggery, brutality tarnish cop image
December 19 2013 at 09:18pm
By Valeska Abreu
By Valeska Abreu
The death of Mozambican
taxi driver Mido Macia at the hands of police drew protests and outrage. Photo:
Reuters
Pretoria - Being dragged behind a
police van, being shot at by police or being raped by officers who offered
help… these are but some of the horrific stories of brutality at the hands of
those meant to serve and protect that have blighted the reputation of the SAPS
this year.
Incidents of violence perpetrated by
the police have left many citizens distrustful of the men and women in blue,
and have embarrassed the national police commissioner and others in charge of
the service.
A survey has found most young South
Africans don’t trust the police. Consumer insights company Pondering Panda
found last month that just one in 10 young South Africans say they trust the
police.
The survey reached close to 4 000
people between the ages of 18 and 34.
One in three people said they never
trusted the police while just more than half said they sometimes trusted
police.
“It’s a huge concern how few young
South Africans trust the police. The majority only trust them in certain
situations, and as many as a third don’t trust the police under any
circumstances,” spokeswoman Shirley Wakefield said.
Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa told
Parliament that acts of brutality were an “embarrassment” that had impacted on
the reputation of the SAPS.
“Over the past months,” he said during
his department’s budget vote in June, “some of our officers have made
headlines, dominated discussions at homes, workplaces, taxi ranks and schools,
including this very august House of Parliament - for the wrong reasons”.
Cellphone images of policemen
assaulting and then dragging Mozambican taxi driver Mido Macia behind their van
went viral after publication in the Daily Sun, and caused an outcry.
The foreign national was later found
dead in the Daveyton police cells.
Nine officers were arrested: Thamsanqa
Ncema, 35, Linda Sololo, 56, Meshack Melele, 45, Motome Walter Ramatlou, 37,
Percy Mnisi, 26, Bongumusa Mdluli, 25, Sipho Ngobeni, 30, Lungisa Qwababa, 31,
and Bongani Kolisi, 37.
National Police Commissioner Riah
Phiyega suspended the officers and also removed the Daveyton Station Commander
from his post.
At the time she said she had viewed the
video “with extreme shock and outrage”.
The group’s first bail application in
March was denied. In May they submitted an urgent application to the Pretoria
High Court, but this too failed.
However, in August, the suspects were
granted bail of R5 000 each.
Their trial is set to begin in May.
In Atteridgeville, another incident
involving the police sparked outrage.
A 17-year-old girl from the township
said she was given a lift from a tavern by two policemen after she had had an
argument with her boyfriend.
But she alleged the two, instead of
taking her home, undressed her in the back seat of the car and took turns to
rape her.
Independent Police Investigative
Directorate (Ipid) spokesman Moses Dlamini confirmed the incident which
involved a 51-year-old warrant officer and a 22-year-old constable.
The pair were denied bail and are due
back in court early next year.
In July, police released a report
stating that 1 448 officers who had criminal records - that included murder,
rape nd corruption - were still active members of the police service.
DA spokeswoman on police Dianne Kohler
Barnard called on Phiyega to act swiftly, stating that all SAPS members with
criminal records should immediately be dismissed.
“All members of the SAPS, including
those within its leadership, should be professional police officers who protect
South Africans from criminals.
“They should not, and cannot, be
criminals themselves,” Kohler Barnard said.
Claims of motorists falling prey to
so-called “blue light” robberies - where criminals use a blue light to dupe
drivers into believing they are police - also featured prominently.
Various claims of motorists being
pulled off the N1 and around the city were made.
The cries of a University of Pretoria
student fell on deaf ears when he was accosted by three men dressed in police
uniform.
After shoving him into the back of
their vehicle, one of the hijackers assaulted him, tied his hands with cable
ties, and covered his face with a jacket.
For about two hours the terrified
student, who asked that his name be withheld, was driven around the city in his
Golf 6 GTI.
When the car eventually came to a stop,
he was cut loose and told to run and not look back.
To this day it is not known if the
suspects were genuine police officials or not, and no arrests have been made.
In August, a couple from Mountain View
were added to the list of blue-light attack victims.
Driving along the R21, they were
stopped by what appeared to have been six rogue police officers from the
Katlehong tactical response team (TRT) unit.
According to Emile Jansen van Rensburg,
he and his wife were forced off the road by the marked vehicle and had R5
rifles pointed at them.
They were assaulted and their
cellphones taken by the “officers” so they could not record or call for help.
Another passing blue-light brigade came
to their rescue.
At the time police spokesman Brigadier
Neville Malila said police viewed the allegations in a serious light. This case
too is still under investigation.
In Lynnwood, a police officer shot and
killed a man and wounded another while they had been waiting in a car outside a
townhouse complex in Glenwood Road for a woman friend with whom they had
arranged to play tennis.
Lucky Hakueri, 37, who worked at the
Zimbabwean embassy, was shot dead after he and his friend were regarded as
suspicious by the police who said that when they approached the men’s vehicle,
they had driven off at speed.
The woman said she believed the officer
had suspected Hakueri and his friend were criminals trying to evade arrest,
while the two men had apparently rushed off for fear the police officer was a
hijacker.
When he was shot, Hakueri lost control
of the vehicle and crashed into a wall.
Police have confirmed the matter is
still under investigation.
