By Mary de Haas
Although widely welcomed, the dismissal of SAPS National Commissioner General Kehla Sitole was tinged with disappointment as the man responsible for the atrocious state of policing, Minister Cele, was not axed.
However, the replacement of one member of a dysfunctional management will make no difference, as there are serious questions about the competence of all of those in the top echelon and about how they came to occupy their positions.
The extent of irregular promotions demands that no national commissioner be appointed until an independent forensic audit of all senior management appointments and promotions and current irregular appointments have taken place.
Without this step, this nepotistic patronage network will follow the same corrupt trajectory of the past twelve years, perpetuating the impunity enjoyed by violent criminal networks.
Apartheid’s systemic police corruption continued post-1994, but it reached new heights after the appointment of the current minister as National Commissioner in 2009 and has continued since then.
In addition to corrupt tender awards and other gross financial irregularities, the whole structure of the SAPS changed.
A proliferation of new departments - most a hindrance to efficiency – were headed by beneficiaries of the concomitant expansion in numbers of generals and brigadiers. The largely incompetent staff in this top-heavy structure wasted time and taxpayer money shuffling papers and files around or having meetings.
At last count, there were two hundred generals and six hundred brigadiers, with a combined annual income of R1 billion*. At the same time, stations and units such as detectives lacked sufficient personnel at lower ranks to provide desperately needed services to communities. The salary of one general, it is estimated, could fund twenty constables.
Accompanying this unnecessary management expansion were a plethora of irregular appointments without proper training, including bodyguards and supposed MK members. The politicisation of policing increased. For example, during Cele’s tenure, Ms X, a clerk related to a prominent politician, transferred to operational policing, becoming a captain. Six years later, she was a Lt-General.
Anecdotal evidence suggests this nepotism extended to friends and lovers. A September 2021 ‘Urgent’ Head Office circular invites reservists and administrative staff to apply for transfer to operational duties. Long-serving members aver that training is minimal and, although mention is made of becoming constables, successful applicants may be promoted above the levels of long-serving junior members.
Concurrent to the expansion of nepotistic networks, many members who took their oaths of office, including to report corruption seriously, or who fell out of favour with corrupt management members, were victimised. The withholding of promotion is a tactic used since 1994 since it is management that decides on promotion committee members, so it is easy to promote allies.
A tactic well documented in the Free State, including in legal papers, is the use of malicious, grossly irregular disciplinary hearings as a basis for dismissal from the service. Despite these processes being shown to be illegal, the SAPS is refusing to reinstate affected members, and costly and time-consuming court battles continue.
Disciplinary action may also be used to cover for corrupt colleagues, declaring them not guilty (some are subsequently convicted in criminal courts). In one case currently being contested nationally, a forensic audit confirmed allegations of selection committee fraud (allegedly very common). A subsequent disciplinary hearing also found there had been misconduct, and the brigadier responsible was served with a dismissal letter. However, the dismissal was overturned by the current Head of Legal Services.
A case study in collusion in corruption at all levels (station to national) is that of a well-trained, experienced detective, Colonel H, who found herself medically boarded without having applied for it.
Severely traumatised after a death threat from a colleague at the same station, she had taken sick leave. The member who threatened her was given her job and her vehicle. She remains dedicated to her policing work and is fighting an ongoing battle for reinstatement.
The supposed boarding application has been ‘lost’, and the conduct of corrupt, inept, senior national management members she has meticulously documented includes lying to parliament about her case.
Of extreme concern is that training standards have declined markedly, yet the SAPS is bleeding desperately needed, dedicated, competent and experienced members. They are being replaced with ill-trained, incompetent members chosen by corrupt management.
The morale of hard-working members risking their lives fighting crime is suffering badly. A moratorium on new appointments and promotions, especially that of a national commissioner, is urgent, pending an independent forensic audit of all management members.
Since politics - not competence or probity – determine Cabinet appointments, the buck stops with the President: It is he who bears responsibility for the dangerous state that policing is in through his choice of minister. If he fails to act to clean up these Augean stables, it is violent criminals who will have the last laugh.
*De Haas is an honorary research fellow at the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Law and a member of the Navi Pillay Research Group focusing on justice and human rights.