Corruption In The South Africa’s Police: Stop Rot, Rotate Cops

"We agreed that it is about time that we start rotating police officers so that the person is not stationed in an area for a long time, because that is creating problems." said Nqakula. Image by: Sunday Times

In a bid to stamp out corruption in the police, the ANC wants law enforcement officers to be periodically rotated around the country. Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula said yesterday in her report to the ANC's National General Council on "peace and stability" that the party's members had raised concerns about "the stagnation of police officers" , causing problems in the investigation of cases.

"... this has led to a situation in which the police are not objective in the manner in which they conduct their investigation, so at times there is no guarantee that the police will be impartial in the manner in which [they] conduct investigations," said Mapisa-Nqakula.

TimesLIVE report continues:

The proposal is, however, expected to be met with resistance from police and police unions, which have called for "in-depth discussions on the nuts and bolts of the plans".

Police commanders, who agree that urgent action must be taken against corruption, said the decision needed to be thought through.

The police's management barely has enough support services to help members and their families deal with stress, the commanders said.

"How are they going to help our families deal with these forced removals [the rotations]," asked a Gauteng flying squad commander.

"What should be discussed is getting to the root causes of corruption," said a Johannesburg police station commander. "If a member is already corrupt and is moved to another precinct that will not stop him from being corrupt.

"Instead, these corrupt members should be weeded out.

"The ANC should be looking at policies to improve the working conditions of police officers. Why not increase salaries so members don't need to seek bribes to 'lose' a docket?"

Mapisa-Nqakula said it was time that police officers were taken out of their comfort zones and rotated to ensure that cases stood a better chance of being investigated properly and were strong enough to stand up in a court of law.

"We agreed that it is about time that we start rotating police officers so that the person is not stationed in an area for a long time, because that is creating problems." said Nqakula.

It was decided that police killings be reclassified from murder to treason - the number of police officers slain has risen to more than 50 so far this year.

The ANC has also urged President Jacob Zuma to sign the Private Security Industry Regulation Amendment Bill, which will result in 51% ownership of foreign firms being transferred to South Africans.

This would apply to security firms as well as companies manufacturing and distributing security equipment.

Nqakula said the mushrooming of the private security sector was a cause for concern as "these companies are not necessarily South African and often employ undocumented foreigners".

Those pushing for the bill, including Police Minister Nathi Nhleko, claim foreign-owned private security companies posed a threat to national security.

This has been dismissed by the private security industry, which has said those employed by private security firms are South Africans.

Nqakula said the commission also noted that private security companies are far better equipped in terms of weapons and better organized than the police.

She said the ANC had realized that private security companies were so well-equipped and organized that the government had found itself relying on these organizations to secure national key points at times.

The ANC raised concern over the lack of training of police officers and called for police stations and officers to be better resourced and equipped so they could work efficiently.

"There needs to be training of police officers in drafting and writing the docket and preparing a case so that a case you are presenting is winnable in court."

SA Police Union president Oscar Skommere said the call to relocate officers needed to be "carefully interrogated".

"A move like this will affect lives.

"There are employment policies in place and these need to be followed. You cannot just up and move someone," he said.

"Yes, deployments can happen, but we need to know the motivation behind this. We need to know how it will be implemented and whether it is temporary or permanent."