The SAPS statistics about officers charged with serious crimes, including rape, attempted rape, murder and hijacking, thwarts almost every effort to assure South Africans that they are in safe hands in the police’s presence.
They make it hard for victims of crimes committed by officers, and South Africans in general, to draw inspiration from Police Minister Bheki Cele’s words that recent take-downs should renew our hope as a country, that officers in blue were gaining ground against crime and continuing to flush out criminality in affluent and impoverished areas.
This is not to paint the entire SAPS entity with the same brush, far from it, and quite the opposite. Most of our women and men in blue do indeed have the interest of citizens and the country at heart. That is why some of them have fallen victims to crime while doing their job.
It is the few rotten apples that overshadow the hard work for which good SAPS members are not often applauded. That is why we first want to use this limited space to recognise the dedicated officers. We also pay tribute to the officers who died while executing their duties of protecting communities.
Some of their colleagues, especially the convicted ones, have not only failed them but have let the entire country down.
Here we are talking about the 6 843 police officers and 323 administrative staff who were charged with criminal offences over the past five years.
The 64 categories under which the offences were allegedly committed include murder, robbery, bribery, corruption, defeating the ends of justice, kidnapping, rape, theft and hijacking.
Being charged does not always mean there will be a successful conviction. In fact, only 688 SAPS personnel were successfully prosecuted.
But this barely calms the fears of concerned South Africans, especially when our news pages now report that some officers have been recently apprehended in connection with assisting syndicates involved in organised crimes such as kidnapping and extortion where high-calibre weapons and explosives were at crime scenes.
This destroys the little trust that is left in our police service. This is a nightmare that should keep Cele and President Cyril Ramaphosa awake at night. If not tackled now, the chances are that criminals will have the last say.
Cape Times