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South African Police Minister General Bheki Cele (Photos: EPA-EFE / NIC BOTHMA and Media 24 / Bebe Kabvundura)
The phrase “stamping (affirmation) of state authority” went through SAPS performance plans, except for crime intelligence and detectives, as Police Minister Bheki Cele beat his men and women in blue on Friday.
“What can I say. In fact, there are members who sometimes get too excited, but not too excited. They do their work under strong provocation,” Police Minister Bheki Cele told lawmakers before a briefing by the vigilante from the police, the Independent Police Investigation Directorate (Ipid) on their workload during the harsh Covid-19 lockdown.
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“The community members themselves are provocative for the police. We don’t have the structures that control the community when they are provocative … That will have to be balanced. “
Cele, who had previously pointed out how “highly supervised” SAPS was, in his usual popular attitude, explained such provocation to parliamentarians.
An example raised by the minister was how the police have had to “drive” a community member in a van after they have refused to get into the van, but “then the community member says that the police are breaking the law for not keeping distance. “
Another example was people who did not say why they were arrested, alleging that it was for police actions related to the blockade when it was not. Like during raids on spaza stores, or small general merchants.
“There are many things with these regulations that store owners cannot understand,” Cele said. “I don’t know why (but) you find a serious violation of the law when it comes to selling meat. You go there and find rotten meat, meat that has been long, it doesn’t tell you if it’s beef or donkey …”
And Cele told the two police committees in Parliament that blasphemy by SAPS officers had not occurred in late April when police arrested several Muslims who, in contravention of the meeting ban, held a prayer meeting. The minister apologized “for the blasphemous comments during the arrest, an issue that is currently under urgent investigation by SAPS to establish the identity of the person behind the sacrilege.” in an official statement on April 26.
On Friday, Parliament heard how the police officer in question had not referred to the Prophet of Islam, but to “one of the three Muhammad” arrested for organizing the illegal gathering. “The blasphemy issue falls,” Cele said.
It is not unusual for SAPS’s own internal probes to lead to such an exemption. The same occurred with regard to the massacre of 34 miners in Marikana in August 2012: in March 2017, the Parliament police commission was informed that 87 police officers were clarified in internal procedures.
Ipid to date has to complete its investigations, stifled due to lack of money as repeatedly told before the parliamentary police committee in appeals for finances.
The police watchdog has been without a permanent boss for more than a year since early 2019, when Chief Robert McBride’s contract expired. And on Friday it was clear that acting dates run for Ipid, from the head down.
Parliamentarians were not impressed with what acting Ipid chief Patrick Setshedi presented, describing it as out of place and “confusing”. Interestingly, Cele had a chance to comment on the Ipid numbers, which he did to highlight inconsistencies.
But some central numbers emerged regarding Ipid’s investigations into police brutality and the Covid-19 lockdown murders. Of a total of 376 Ipid cases, 10 are related to deaths by police action, 79 related to the discharge of a firearm and 280 of assault.
It is in this context that SAPS’s annual performance speaks of “confirmed and enforced law, to support the sealing (affirmation) of state authority” as the desired outcome. And that is in all the programs, except in criminal intelligence and detectives.
Cele told lawmakers on Friday about his language concerns regarding the Ipid investigations; He complained that Ipid, when investigating the police, was talking about murder and assault while anyone else allegedly committed a crime.
However, such language sensitivities do not apply to SAPS and its annual performance plan language of “internal stability” and “… the sealing (assertion) of state authority.”
Coincidentally, identified as a key risk to this stampede of state authority, the annual performance plan includes power outages and porous borders, but also “degeneration of moral fiber” and “intensified community protests, regarding services provided in local, provincial and national government levels. “
That “seal (affirmation) of state authority” includes a range of annual performance results in financial 2020/21, from a greater sense of security in communities, to achieving a “balance between trade and security in ports of entry “, illegally stopping mining to protect valuable cargo and VIPs.
The objectives in “the confirmed and applied law, to support the sealing (affirmation) of the state authority: Greater sense of security in communities” includes the planned closure of 90% of illegal liquor outlets, but also the recovery of Stolen, lost, and / or illegal firearms.
It is these indicators in the annual performance plans that carry the most detailed scrutiny.
The goal of recovering 3,751 stolen, lost, and / or illegal firearms is only slightly more than the 3,535 firearm recoveries accomplished in 2019. But that is only half of the 7,141 recoveries accomplished in 2018. Indeed, the SAPS it remains 50% less than it did only three years ago.
The annual performance plan also does not make clear how, or why, the police could achieve their 7.5% reduction target in fiscal year 2020/21. Over the past three years, SAPS has achieved a confirmed 2.6% reduction in fiscal 2018/19 at best, up from 1.1% a year earlier, before falling to the estimated return of 0.8% for the year fiscal 2019/20.
Unless the police leadership expects the tough Covid-19 blockade to help. Cele highlighted the fall in serious crimes in an official statement in early April. And then, perhaps, throwing into the mix what anecdotal accounts indicate is a major trend to move people away from opening cases, citing closure.
Meanwhile, indicators for detective services show moderate increases as the state authority makes its way for “a thorough and responsive investigation into the crime.” Detectives are supposed to detect 0.25% more contact crimes: 55.47% in fiscal year 2020/21, above the detection rate of 55.22% in 2019/20.
On Friday, Cele’s interaction was peppered with kindness to focus away from the few bad cases, or “corrupt cops.” Ipid had not helped himself in presenting evidence of police killings and brutality related to the Covid-19 hard blockade.
Instead, Cele moved to focus attention on how SAPS was affected by Covid-19 even if, as the minister insisted, “up to this point we are fine with PPE (personal protective equipment).” We keep adding because most of them (PPE) are disposable. In all seasons we are fine … “
However, within a week, 150 more police officers tested positive for Covid-19. Cele told lawmakers that as of Friday there were 253 positive members of Covid-19 SAPS, 178 in the Western Cape. A week earlier, on April 29, the police administration told Parliament that of 2,917 tests, 103 returned with positive results. A police officer had died when three were hospitalized.
And so regardless of the twist, the friendliness and kragdadig Affirmation of powers like police station commanders who issue permits to allow people to move out of houses until June 7, after all, not everything is fine. DM
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