Colleagues,
If you imagined that finally ridding the SAPS of crooked, criminal crime intelligence boss, Richard Mdluli, had magically cut the bars on its own version of State Capture lockup, you would be mistaken.
Why do you think the NPA has reinstated a charge against General Johan Booysen – a charge that has already been thrown out of court? It is to keep him from working together with Minister Cele. He had the unmitigated gall to lift the grubby NPA sheet and gave us a peek. If you imagined this was not payback for his attempts to jail Toshan Panday, you would be mistaken.
Minister of those involved:
Colonel Madhoe who attempted to bribe the General with R2 million cash in a bag – is still at work. As is Captain Narainpersad, arrested for corruption and Colonel Aiyer, arrested for perjury.
The South African Police Services (SAPS) paid Mdluli millions for all the years it took him to reach retirement age – using every excuse in the book – but the new NPC released him faster than Schabir Shaik. The report by Major General Hankel revealed in excruciating detail his thieving ways – any one of which would have – should have – had any other SAPS member immediately fired and criminally charged.
While he sat in that chair a senior public prosecutor had two attempts made on her life shortly after handing a 200-page report revealing the error of lifting the murder charges against him to the Acting Head of the NPA. You know who I mean she is now our Shadow Minister of Justice, Glynnis Breytenbach.
Speaking of which, so great is the fear of General Booysen that a hit has allegedly been taken out on him.
There is confirmation from three independent and reliable sources that MK Veterans from Cornubia near Phoenix in KZN have been taken on to do the job after meetings between none other than former fired President Jacob Zuma , Super Zuma and Sihle Zikalala. Dudu Myeni is also implicated after she also met with MK Veterans. Indeed if General Booysen so much as stubs his toe we’ll know exactly where to look, won’t we?
Members of the SAPS have been beaten down like a baton to the head by each of the revolving-door Ministers and crooked National Police Commissioners over the past decade. The result? The R91 billion budget – made up of our taxes – gives us:
- Over 2000 firearms stolen from SAPS armouries over the past four years;
- Over 2 500 police firearms stolen or lost over the past three years; and
- 11 000 police members who don’t have competency certificates yet nearly 4 000 still carry firearms.
So we have members who can’t shoot – no guns; or no driver’s licences – but that doesn’t really matter much because there are so few vehicles fit to drive.
And then there are the murders up to 52 each and every day.
Minister presumably a pick pocket nicked your watch so you missed my latest Member’s Statement on the murders in our rural areas. How these have become carefully planned and executed invasions characterised by sheer brutality. I gave excruciating details of the torture and murder of black, white, Indian, young and old residents of farms.
Minister you say we don’t need specialised Rural Safety Units, because the Rural Safety Strategy is working. You might imagine it is, but it isn’t.
Our rural communities are isolated, they are terrified, and they need your help Minister.
Of course you’d also need forensic evidence if a farm murderer was actually caught. Some were – but the forensic evidence didn’t arrive and the Court was about to cut them free for lack of evidence. I managed to ensure the evidence arrived, and today they are being tried. What if I hadn’t been called?
The SAPS has spent billions on forensic laboratories, but the one in Amanzimtoti was flooded for the third time recently and has now been abandoned. You must think the promised laboratory in Pinetown is nearly complete. But you would be wrong. The land for the new lab was bought eight years ago but not a single brick has been laid.
I did ask for the details of the sample backlog nationally, but if you imagine I have them, you would be mistaken.
Speaking of regressing we met to interrogate the Moses Mabhida Stadium pitch invasion – the one that resulted in R2,8 million in damages. My information was that the operational plan was only signed off on the day after the match. The Police admitted it was. I asked if it
was true that the leader of the operation had missed every planning meeting. They admitted that he had. I presume, Minister, that you still think in your chest out stomach in chant and that it has
convinced you that the SAPS is able to deal with any and all emergencies.
Where were the SAPS when the trucks started burning at the Mooi River toll plaza? As Crime Intelligence is back to the level of a fresh-faced first time pick pocket they had no idea the burning was about to start. They’re as much use as a file in a cake.
Add to that the fact that the process to ensure the POP units are called is now so cumbersome that the disarmed reservists on the scene may as well have been handcuffed, left with no option but to stand and watch as 35 trucks were looted and burned. The POP Units have become the sensible shoes of the SAPS, hard to find and when they eventually arrive you wish you’d never ordered them.
The lack of CI speaks equally to the soaring rhino and elephant poaching especially in KZN. Poachers are arrested, zip through the KZN Magistrates’ Courts, pay minimal bail, and disappear. I was told by a guide 2 days ago he was offered R100 000 to tip off the poachers where the rhino were. When did anyone last hear of a poacher going to jail? Certainly not alleged kingpin Dumisani Gwala – 20 adjournments later they’re trying again today.
It seems every time the allegations of corruption in our KZN Magistrates’ Courts are focussed on, the relevant SAPS investigator is moved onto another project, or targeted and fired, so that today there is a lone officer left doing the job in the face of multimillionaire’s syndicates. Minister our thin blue line is so threadbare it’s about to snap.
When the DA runs this department, our police will be of a calibre that they are considered the gatekeepers of equality, integration and cohesion as we move past the chaotic service delivery protests and anger left behind by the current government’s looting and failure to keep its promise of a good life story for all.
The DA Government will ensure a swift move towards democratic policing from a controloriented to a more service-oriented approach.
Extreme politicisation of the police that has fuelled cronyism and corruption, which has eroded expertise, technical knowledge, and accountability, will be a thing of the past.
The DA has a single vision: a highly professional SAPS where Station Commanders aren’t set up for failure to the extent that they turn away victims of crime so their stats will show a decrease.
For a decade I’ve asked for a professional, real police officer at the helm. Today we have one, and I pray daily that the rumours that he may not be squeaky clean are Fake News. Sadly if you imagine the ANC can self-correct as it yells “shuddup” to those pointing out its myriad failings, you would be mistaken.