Latest / The National Briefing / Today marks exactly a year since KZN Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held a press briefing where he revealed explosive information of the involvement of high profile politicians and senior police leadership in corruption. How has this changed the Police department?

Transcript

Today marks exactly a year since KZN Provincial Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi held a press briefing where he revealed explosive information of the involvement of high profile politicians and senior police leadership in corruption. How has this changed the Police department? · The National Briefing

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  Speaker 1: The National Briefing on SAFM weekday mornings from 6 to 9.
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  Speaker 2: Alright, so we'll start then with our big story this hour,
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  Speaker 2: which is really the unraveling, right, um, that we've been
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  Speaker 2: seeing exactly a year since those explosive allegations were made
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  Speaker 2: by the KZN pro provincial Police commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi. Jabu
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  Speaker 2: Mabena is the deputy spokesperson for the South African Police Union. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: he joins us on the line. So Jabu,
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  Speaker 2: There's no question about it, right. This last year has
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  Speaker 2: been brutal um for the SAPF. We've seen um high-ranking
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  Speaker 2: police officials, not only accused but arrested, um, witnesses coming
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  Speaker 2: under threat, especially those that have held critical information when
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  Speaker 2: it comes to where the gaps in corruption may be. Uh,
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  Speaker 2: speak to us about what this has done.
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  Speaker 2: Um, to the police force in general.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning, uh, Katti and to your listeners. Uh, we
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  Speaker 2: as SAPU as a stakeholder within the security, uh, cluster,
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  Speaker 2: we have received this news with a, a shock from
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  Speaker 2: the press briefing by the KZN provincial commissioner a year ago.
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  Speaker 2: But our position was to say we have supported that
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  Speaker 2: the revelations by General Mkhwanazi.
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  Speaker 2: It says it could, if he couldn't have came out
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  Speaker 2: and uh speak about this, it could have been a
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  Speaker 2: business uh as usual, of which as the union in
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  Speaker 2: the department of police, we wish that we should be
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  Speaker 2: having a department that is clean uh whereby we are
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  Speaker 2: having a mandate to protect the communities within the republic.
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  Speaker 2: And not to be trusted by the same communities we
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  Speaker 2: serve in terms, uh, it tend to be a gross contradiction. So,
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  Speaker 2: we are closely watching this, uh, developments at Malanga Commission
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  Speaker 2: to say, let there be a clean-up that is supposed
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  Speaker 2: to uh happen and we have a very clean uh
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  Speaker 2: police uh service.
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  Speaker 2: The reality is that those that are also at the
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  Speaker 2: center of this controversy, which are police officers that are
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  Speaker 2: really in cahoots with organized crime syndicates, they are your members.
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  Speaker 2: And I wonder, as a union, proactively, what are you
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  Speaker 2: doing to ensure that those that are part of your
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  Speaker 2: structures are actually not among those who have found themselves
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  Speaker 2: to be aiding and abetting criminals in this country.
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  Speaker 2: KTS SAPU will forever advocate for a police officer that
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  Speaker 2: will be disciplined in all respect, as then we are
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  Speaker 2: expected not really to be in cahoots as allegations are
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  Speaker 2: saying that uh we tend to be in cahoots with
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  Speaker 2: the underworld of saying that we'll become part and parcel
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  Speaker 2: of the crime.
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  Speaker 2: As it is, it is alleged. SAPU will refute such
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  Speaker 2: and we really do not support. By the end of
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  Speaker 2: the day, as a union, we are expected to represent
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  Speaker 2: the very same members that will be subjected to any
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  Speaker 2: uh process either it's criminal or departmental.
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  Speaker 2: So, so what exactly do you not support?
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  Speaker 2: We do not support the ill as alleged to say
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  Speaker 2: that there will be members of the South African police
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  Speaker 2: at this highest level whereby the allegations will point them
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  Speaker 2: out to say they are involved with the criminals of
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  Speaker 2: which they are acting on the opposite of what is
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  Speaker 2: expected as as mandated by the constitution to really protect
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  Speaker 2: and really fight crime. But if we become part and
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  Speaker 2: parcel of that crime, SAPU does not support that.
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  Speaker 2: But surely you have seen in the past year that
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  Speaker 2: these are not merely it's not just naysayers, it's not
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  Speaker 2: just unfounded criticism. There has been evidence, you know, to
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  Speaker 2: support these allegations that are being made at the Malanga
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  Speaker 2: Commission at the ad hoc committee. I want to know
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  Speaker 2: how you as a union
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  Speaker 2: are reading all of this and how this is informing
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  Speaker 2: your processes because clearly the rot in the SAPS runs deep.
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  Speaker 2: You are correct, uh, Katy, and, uh, one should be
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  Speaker 2: putting this whereby the community should have an understanding of
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  Speaker 2: our involvement in these issues. We are here as a union,
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  Speaker 2: really as a stakeholder to assist the employer to really
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  Speaker 2: make sure that we deliver on the mandate. But at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, as far as Malanga is concerned,
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  Speaker 2: the Malanga is still going on.
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  Speaker 2: What's going on, there's no report that can really recommend
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  Speaker 2: either Mabena should be subjected either to departmental or a
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  Speaker 2: criminal case as far as we are here. And as
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  Speaker 2: far as we are here, Katie, there's members that already
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  Speaker 2: are being dismissed that we have represented. But what we
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  Speaker 2: raise as a concern is to say these members are, are,
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  Speaker 2: are er
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  Speaker 2: They are dismissed with allegations that they did not complete
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  Speaker 2: a circle in that they are subjected to regulation 9
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  Speaker 2: that we call an expeditious process within the police whereby
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  Speaker 2: we're saying the member will be subjected to a departmental
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  Speaker 2: hearing where the member cannot state his or her case,
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  Speaker 2: whereby whatever evidence that is, is spoken about at Madhlanga
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  Speaker 2: commission cannot be tested.
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  Speaker 2: But there will be just one chairperson that will decide
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  Speaker 2: on the documentary evidence that is before them to make
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  Speaker 2: that finding. Let's give an example of saying that we
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  Speaker 2: believe that SARS has to, has a duty to really
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  Speaker 2: deal with the recommendations, not necessarily to deal with a
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  Speaker 2: half meal, a piecemeal that is happening now with allegations
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  Speaker 2: that won't be really uh uh completed in a nutshell,
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  Speaker 2: saying that tomorrow there will be a witness that is
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  Speaker 2: coming in the day after.
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  Speaker 2: Then the very same witness, Mabena is dismissed already. The
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  Speaker 2: very same witness er implicates Mabena again on the new evidence. Now,
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  Speaker 2: already I'm dismissed. There's no way that SABS can take
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  Speaker 2: a disciplinary hearing, uh, disciminary steps against me, subject me
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  Speaker 2: to a hearing, because already.
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  Speaker 2: I'm being dismissed and that information that is new from
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  Speaker 2: tomorrow going forward is being rendered useless from the commission
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  Speaker 2: to say we cannot follow it anymore because Mabena is
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  Speaker 2: dismissed already. But you have asked to say what really
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  Speaker 2: informed our process.
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  Speaker 2: So, so Jabu, what are you saying? Are you saying
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  Speaker 2: that you don't believe that there should be any action
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  Speaker 2: taken against police officers who are implicated right now? And
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  Speaker 2: that all all of these processes should rather be waiting
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  Speaker 2: um for the Malanga Commission to do its work. I mean,
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  Speaker 2: it's also the equivalent of saying um the NPA then
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  Speaker 2: shouldn't arrest people.
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  Speaker 2: Katty, let's state our facts are very right to say
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  Speaker 2: we are in support that anything that will be recommended,
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  Speaker 2: it should be, uh, followed up and be investigated further
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  Speaker 2: as then there will be, uh, the recommendation that says
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  Speaker 2: to this. Now, we are saying as, as SAPU, if
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  Speaker 2: we rush before we can even get the end product
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  Speaker 2: of the commission.
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  Speaker 2: Will end up allowing the lawsuits that are going to
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  Speaker 2: be against South African police services in this regard. You
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  Speaker 2: check even the members that are arrested, some, they are
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  Speaker 2: members and in those members, there's some that they didn't
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  Speaker 2: do anything. Hence you will see the
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  Speaker 2: The NPA now wants to have an arrangement of saying
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  Speaker 2: that uh a target supposed to now be a state
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  Speaker 2: witness in, in that. That simply means in the eyes
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  Speaker 2: of us as a union, we see that maybe there's
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  Speaker 2: nothing that er er the
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  Speaker 2: The government has around the very same people that are arrested.
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  Speaker 2: If people will be arrested unlawfully so without any case
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  Speaker 2: being proven, that opens a lawsuit. But if we wait
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  Speaker 2: until Mahlanga Commission gives the recommendations to say A, B,
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  Speaker 2: and C should be charged departmentally or criminally, already we
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  Speaker 2: could have closed the chapter in saying.
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  Speaker 2: That Mabena is alleged to have done the following, and
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  Speaker 2: we pursue Mabena on that. So as we are SAP,
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  Speaker 2: we are saying we could have waited until we receive
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  Speaker 2: the total outcome of the recommendations of the commission. Then
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  Speaker 2: we act from there. But as much as we are here, yes, OK, alright, alright,
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  Speaker 2: we're going to have to leave it there. I'm, I
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  Speaker 2: think you've made your points of the South African Police Union.