The Institute for Security Studies on Friday said the degradation of professionalism in the South African Police Service is proving to be a stumbling block in tackling crime.
ISS researcher Dr Johan Burger said political interference was crippling the crucial divisions in the police force such as investigations, administration, detective services, and crime intelligence.
“There has been evidence pointing towards political interference. Not acting against some high-profile individuals such as Richard Mdluli,” Burger said.
Burger was speaking to the Pretoria News at the South African Police Union (SAPU) conference at the St Georges Hotel south of the city, where the organisation also expressed its disappointment with the deterioration in the quality of the police force. “One of the key aspects of the police is the crime intelligence unit. We have seen a massive drop in intelligence reports indicating that not much information is being gathered,” said Burger.
He said the National Development Plan (NPD) needed to address such issues and also look at the appointment process of some top-ranking police officials.
“The NDP will need to look at it and limit the role that the president plays in appointments because some of them are politically motivated,” said Burger.
Burger lamented the lack of professionals in the police force.
“Some people who are working in the police force shouldn’t be there because they are not skilled. The matter needs to be addressed urgently,” he said.
However, national police commissioner Riah Phiyega said plans were in motion to professionalise police and defended the police against the criticism.
“We will soldier on. We will not give in to the critics, we are police and we do not succumb to pressures and we will not ignore the complaints of high levels of violent crimes,” she said.
She said the call for “apartheid-type” policing was unwarranted but advised police to act in accordance with situations.
“Violence is not the answer. Skop, skiet and donner won’t help the situation. But force is a tool given to the police. It must be used appropriately,” she said.
Regarding the formalisation of the police, Phiyega said they had improved the police curriculum and were opening police universities to improve the quality of work.
SAPU reiterated the points made by Burger, arguing that more effort needed to be made to repair the deficiencies in the police force.
“One of the major problems we are seeing is the task teams that are being set up all over the country when major incidents occur,” said SAPU president Mpho Kwinika.
He said task teams were infringing on the ability of detective teams working on cases to do their jobs.
“Allow them to work. They have sources, sources have information, information leads to successful arrests. When you bring in someone from Pretoria to investigate something in KwaZulu Natal, they will not be able to get information because people do not know them,” he said. We also can’t have politicians leading policeman. This is what compromises the quality of police work,” he said. He also attributed the wrongful arrests in high profile cases to the abovementioned.
“Look at the (Senzo) Meyiwa and Taegrin (Morris) cases. They exposed the lack of proper investigation and crime intelligence,” he said.
- Pretoria News Weekend