7/28/2019 Dont sacrifice human rights to fight crime by Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi

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S AT U R D AY S TA R A p r i l 6 2 0 1 3 15INSIGHT

NOOSHIN ERFANI-GHADIMI

POLICE brutality has become a sta-ple ingredient of the front page in

South Africa.Last week the nation was

shocked by the acquittal of seven

police officers accused of killingFree State resident Andries Tatanein April 2011. Tatane died when the

police shot him with rubber bulletsand beat him with batons during aservice delivery protest in Ficks-

burg. Footage showing the assaultwas broadcast nationally, but magis-trate Hein van Niekerk of the Ficks-

burg Regional Court ruled that theState could not prove its case againstthe officers beyond reasonable

doubt.The acquittal doesnt give the

public much confidence that justice

will be done in other recent cases ofpolice brutality, like that of a courtinterpreter who was allegedly

dragged by a moving police vanwhile held by the neck by the policeofficer inside. According to News24,

the man had angered the police byoffering advice to a young suspect hehad seen them harass.

Another story, published in theSowetan, was of a constableallegedly closing the window of a

police van on a 20-year-old man,driving off, and leaving his bodydragging behind. The man was

reported to have died at the scene.

One of the main reasons for

police brutality, it has been argued,is that torture is not criminalised,nor is use of force defined or prop-

erly restricted. Most people areshocked to learn torture is not acrime in South Africa, even though

it is outlawed by the constitution.South Africa ratified the UNCon-

vention Against Torture in 1998, but

has yet to domesticate the law. Whyhas it taken so long to pass such anobvious and necessary act?

South Africans are still trying todeal with the shock and horror theyfelt when they saw thevideo footage

of the other police dragging case:a taxi driver was handcuffed anddragged behind a police van,

because he had parked on the wrongside of the road. Mido Macia waslater found dead in a police holding

cell.These shocking stories of police

brutality come on top of the

Marikana incident, where thefootage of police firing on protestingminers was perceived by many as an

awful flashback to the apartheidpast, and served to scar our nationalpsyche even more.

The torture bill, in the workssince 2003, has beentabled in Parlia-ment and the National Assembly

committee on justice and constitu-tional development has heard sub-missions on it from experts and

civil society representatives.

Hopefully, the act will be passedsoon. But even if it is passed intolaw tomorrow, its implementation

(including adequate training) willtake years, and that might be toolate.

The credibility and legitimacy ofthe police and by extension, ourcriminal justice system is being

drained, and drastic and immediatesteps are needed to stop this leakage.Our trust in those tasked with

upholding law and order should be

earned and continually reinforced.A report published in the journal

Regulation and Governance this

year argues that in South Africa,police legitimacy is essential foreffective crime control: we will co-

operate and comply more if webelieve the system is fair and wetrust the police to be just, decent

and respectful. This is especially soin South Africa where a baselinelevel of legitimacy of law enforce-

ment has not had enough time to

develop. We dont have a deep well ofother, good policing incidents tocounteract the negative because our

democracy is still so new.The Institute for Security Studies

(ISS) analysis of the latest crime and

arrest statistics paints an interest-ing picture. Even though there were1.6 million arrests in 2011/12 (an

increase of 11 percent from the yearbefore), crime went up by 0.7per-cent. The harsh, militarised

approach to policing is clearly not

paying off.

What is even more telling isthat more than half of the arrests(52 percent) in 2011/12 were for

crimes less serious than shoplifting.That includes loitering, drinking inpublic and urinating on the street. If

our resources are being directedtowards fighting loitering, instead ofviolent crime, then police effective-

ness is reduced.If the police force is investing

more than half of its capacity in

fighting very minor forms of crime,this logically means that hard-corecriminals are getting away with

impunity and very minor offendersare encountering a police forcethat is not bound by anti-torture

legislation.And every time someone is

arrested for a petty crime, their atti-

tude towards law enforcement andthe criminal justice system hardensand they become more defiant. The

ISS report attributes this to thetrauma of being arrested, of beingtreated harshly by tough on crime

police officers. Very few of sucharrests make it to court, and if theydo, the arrested person feels vic-

timised by the system and outside ofits protection and therefore itsrules. This effect is considerably

worsened by exposure to abuse andtorture by state of ficials.

The reported incidents of abuse

are not isolated, nor are they a new

phenomenon. They are part of a pat-

tern that we at the Wits Justice Pro-ject have begun to discern with dis-tressing clarity. We regularly receive

reports of torture, brutality andapartheid-era tactics by both policeand prison warders, embedded in

what seems to be a growing cultureof impunity.

Abuse of force and torture by

officials should never be tolerated.Such incidents contribute to a weak-ening of the entire criminal justice

system. They devalue the legitimacyof the police and the trust we eachshould be able to place in our law

enforcement officials. In a countrythat has fought so hard for its consti-tution and for equal human rights

for all, such attitudes are tragic.We must not sacrifice fairness,

decency and respect in the fight

against crime, because it will havethe opposite effect. We need to stopthinking of torture and abuse of

force in the abstract or as somethingthat happens to other people, or topeople who somehow deserve it. If

a system allows for even one personto be abused or tortured, it cannot berelied on to protect the innocent

and that person could be you.

Nooshin Erfani-Ghadimi is theproject co-ordinator of the Wits Jus-

tice Project, which investigates mis-carriages of justice and is based inthe Department of Journalism at

Wits University.

GARETH NEWHAM

THE DEATH in Februaryof Mozambican taxidriver Mido Macia,

allegedly at the hands ofpolice officers, onceagain turned the worlds

attention to police brutality in SouthAfrica. So, too, has the controversialverdict in the Andries Tatane mur-

der case.But these incidents only became

a major media sensation due to the

fact that there was video footage.And while statements condemn-

ing the incidents were forthcoming

from some in the political and policeleadership, they ultimatelyappeared to be in denial about the

scale of the problem.However, when you look at the

systematic police abuse that has

been taking place for a number ofyears, it seems it is only a matterof time before similar tragedies

happen again.The denial of the crisis may be

because, at its root, lies the long-

standing, persistent problem ofpoor leadership of the SAPS. Essen-

tially, our political leaders have notrecognised policing as an importantprofession that requires high levels

of skill, expertise and integrity.President Thabo Mbeki could,

therefore, appoint Jackie Selebi

despite Selebis absence of experi-ence or knowledge of policing ashis national police commissioner

late in 1999. At first Selebi talked and

acted tough to demonstrate he wasin charge. However, it was not long

before he revealed his lack of under-standing of what was required toensure that the armed officials

under his command would use theirpowers and weapons primarily toensure public safety and security

and to enforce the law.One of Selebis first strategic

mistakes was to push for a mass

recruitment drive of police officerswithout fully appreciating what ittakes to effectively train and man-

age them. As crime levels wereincreasing substantially at the timeof his appointment, Selebi based his

strategy on the assumption thatmore police officials equals lesscrime.

This made sense to Mbeki, andeach year, the SAPS received a gen-erous budgetary increase about

twice that of the inflation rate. Thisresulted in almost 70000 more peo-ple being recruited into the organi-

sation since 2002.Unfortunately, Selebi was seem-

ingly uninterested in the quality

and integrity of these recruits.Selebis lack of willingness toengage with and learn from the

extensive policing experiencearound him or from internationalexperience meant that he had little

appreciation as to the dangers thatmass recruitment drives can posefor policing organisations.

His determination to meetincreased personnel targets meantthat thousands of people who either

failed the basic requirements orwere otherwise not fit to be policeofficials were allowed into the SAPS.

Training time was halved andstation level commanders foundthemselves supervising ever-larger

numbers of inadequately trainedrecruits.

Simultaneously, police manage-ment systems started to weaken orcollapse as Selebi appointed people

to senior posts regardless of theirlack of expertise or abilities.

One particularly notorious exam-

ple took place in 2005 when Selebiappointed a new head of the SAPS

national inspectorate. This

inspectorate was crucial for internalpolice accountability, as it under-took inspections at police stations to

ensure that they adhered to SAPSrules and regulations.However, Selebi appointeda per-

son the Public Service Commissionhad previously recommended beremoved from his post for gross

incompetence and failure to per-form his duties following an inves-tigation into misconduct.

The national inspectorate col-lapsed and many stations went foryears without being inspected.

Other poor appointments made itabundantly clear throughout the

SAPS that under Selebi, promotionto the top was based on political andpersonal loyalties and had little to

do with professionalism or inte grity.As highly skilled senior man-

agers left and others were ignored,

a number of additional strategicblunders occurred.

For example, Selebi shut down

the important area managementtier that was responsible for oversee-ing management functions and

operations of clusters of police sta-tions. This went along with the

disbandment or decentralisationof a number of important spe-cialised police structures such as

the SAPS anti-corruption unit; themurder and robbery units; the fam-ily, child and sexual offences (FCS)

units and the public order policingunits.

With the neglect and weakeningof specialised detective units, houseand business robberies soared so

that between 2006 and 2009 thesecrimes had increased by 100 percentand 296 percent respectively.

The SAPS has only recently re-established the FCS units and is still

struggling with public order polic-ing, as the Marikana massacre sotragically highlighted.

When Selebi was finally forcedout of the police after being con-victed of corruption, many thought

that these lessons would have beenlearnt and that more careful

consideration would be given to the

appointment of the new SAPS com-missioner. Unfortunately, this wasnot to be the case and President

Jacob Zuma appointed his friendand political ally Bheki Cele.Once again the SAPS was sad-

dled with a head who had no polic-ing experience and thought that the

job simply required tough talk.Again, questionable appointmentswere made, and poorly considered

policies implemented.To emphasise the maximum

force doctrine that started to take

root in the thinking of our politicalleaders, military ranks were re-introduced and shoot to kill polit-

ical rhetoric became commonplace.Eventually, Cele was fired by

Zuma following a board of inquiry

that found he acted unlawfully in aR1.7 billion police headquarter leasedeal and was unfit for the position.

To date, the recommendation bythe inquiry that he be criminallyinvestigated for his role in this

fraudulent deal has gone unheededby the president.

So, too, were the findings that two

very senior police officers hadattempted to mislead the board

while under oath and that for the

sake of the integrity of the service,this was disturbing and should notbe overlooked.

It is therefore not too surprisingthat most indicators highlight ongo-ing and widespread problems with

the police.Consider the following:

Between 2006 and 2009, the

number of people shot dead by thepolice doubled from 281 cases to 556.This happened despite crime having

decreased by almost 20 percentbetween 2002 and 2006.

The national spokesmanof the

Independent Police InvestigativeDirectorate, Moses Dlamini, pub-licly stated during a national radio

programme on March 4 this yearthat over the past 12 months, thereis a pattern of abuse, according to

an assessment of complaintsagainst the police.

Total civil claims against the

police for abuses, including wrong-ful arrests and destruction of prop-erty, has more than doubled in the

past two years to R14.7bn.

The 2012 National Victims ofCrime Survey reveals police cor-

ruption is the second most experi-enced form of public sector corrup-tion and has increased since 2011.

Less than half the adult popu-lation trust the police (42 percent)and 66 percent think corruption is a

widespread problem in the police.While there are many excellent

police officers throughout the SAPS,

there are also far too many that

should not be in an organisation.Fortunate ly, the National Devel-

opment Plan (NDP) clearly recog-nises that as a consequence ofa leadership crisis the SAPS cannot

become the well-respected profes-sional police agency it could be. TheNDP therefore recommends that a

national policing board consisting ofmultisectoral and multidisciplinaryexpertise be established to set stan-

dards for recruiting, selecting,appointing and promoting policemanagers and officials.

Most importantly, the NDP rec-ommends that the SAPS nationalcommissioner and the deputies

must only be appointed followinga competitive selection process that

assesses candidates against objec-tive criteria. The president wouldthen make the appointment from

the vetted shortlist of proven profes-sionals.

Indeed, this will prevent a situa-

tion where the senior leaders of theSAPS are unable to give the neces-sary strategic and ethical guidance

required to professionalise the

SAPS, as has been the case to date.Until the NDP recommendations

are implemented properly, budgetallocations to the SAPS will be spenton poorly considered policing strate-

gies that are not rooted in interna-tional or local best practice. Frus-trated and demoralised police

officials will continue to engage incorruption and other acts of mis-conduct.

Public mistrust of the police willcontinue, thereby limiting the abil-ity of the organisation to reduce

crime.South Africa has the resources,

people and expertise to substan-

tially improve policing. Lets hopethat the countrys leadership alsorealises this and implements the

recommendations of the NDP asa matter of urgency.

Gareth Newham is head of theGovernance, Crime and Justice Divi-sion at the Institute for Security Stud-

ies. This article also appears on theISS website at www.issafrica.org

Dont sacrifice human rights to fight crime

CAUGHTON CAMERA:A screen grab from a video shot of Andries Tatane during the Ficksburg unrest in the Free State on April 13, 2011. Tatane was shot at close range with rubberbullets by police in riot gear. The writer argues that a lack of expertise and leadership is limiting the SAPSs ability to reduce crime. PICTURE: MCC (MEQHELENGCONCERNEDCOMMUNITY)

Fixing the police needsto start at the top

KILLER COPSCAUGHT ON VIDEO:This frame grabshows how policeabused taxi driverMido Macia he wastied to a police vanand dragged over400m, only to facehis death later in acell.

PICTURE. DAILYSUN

The absence of experience or knowledge of policing sets the SAPS up for failure

MATTER FOR DEBATE: Former commissioners Jackie Selebi and Bheki Cele and commissioner Rhia Phiyega.