YOU ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CORRUPTION!

Ok, so where do I start on this topic. Absolutely there is a huge amount of corruption in this country. Having said that, it is not confined to the police, or any one sector of the community, it is rampant everywhere. Everyday in the newspaper there is something about someone somewhere who has accepted a bribe of some sort.

I look around at all the small business owners (and the members of Joe Public for that matter) and how difficult it is to sometimes get the smallest of things done, without spending hours of wasted time and/or huge amounts of money to get whatever it is that we want in place done and I can almost understand why it is often much easier (not to mention cheaper by far) to get something done. But is that the right way to go . . . logic tells me no, because as some point, what-ever it is that has been done illegally, will rise up, like the Phoenix out of the ashes and bite you on the bum! And please believe me, when it bites, it is going to hurt like hell!

Yes I agree that infrastructures need to be improved and legislation needs to be amended to make life easier. Some of the people in power need to have their 'ego' checked in at the door, and some just need to get over themselves. A little bit of power is the same as a little bit of knowledge - they are both very dangerous in the wrong hands! Having said that however, we all need to be a part of the solution and not a part of the problem, if we are going to get things sorted out.

So, in closing - ponder on this - don't bribe - if you have done the crime (whatever it may be) you must be willing to do the time (or pay the price). Let's all work together to bring corruption down.

Regards

Nikki
January 05 2007 at 12:14PM


By Miranda Andrew

Corruption among Durban's police forces is alarmingly high. Senior police officers and concerned security analysts agree that corruption is rife in some of the city's bigger police stations. But senior police officers have blamed the public, saying they are encouraging corruption by offering bribes. Experts say that police are so corrupt that most communities would rather trust private security firms than the men in blue.

Durban regional court magistrate Keshore Lalbahadur on Thursday also lamented the plague of corrupt officials. Speaking before taking up his new post as regional court president of the Free State, Lalbahadur said "there are simply too many corrupt officials who are encouraging crime". Everyone had to work together to root out the problems, he said.

The latest soul-searching about police corruption in the city comes after recent reports about alleged corruption at the Sydenham and Phoenix police stations. In December Metro police officers accused some Phoenix SAPS officers of hindering a legitimate police operation against a popular shebeen that has operated illegally for years with seeming impunity. This week the spotlight turned to Sydenham Police Station after a blood sample taken from a drunk driver during a festive season roadblock was allegedly stolen from a secure location accessible only to police officers.

These two cases, and dozens more, are being investigated by the police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). "The police are the cornerstone of all communities and if that falls apart, then communities live in fear. That is the situation at present," Koos van Rooyen, chairman of the KZN branch of the South African Security Association (SASA) said on Thursday.

Van Rooyen, a former policeman in the Durban North Murder and Robbery Unit, said there was a big problem in Durban and it would never change unless senior management was held accountable. "The problems will never be changed from the bottom up, changes can only come from the top," he said.

A recent study by SASA shows that the majority of South Africans trust their private security companies more than the police. "And this should never be the case," Rooyen added. "The authorities should keep the public informed about the outcome of corruption investigations. This builds confidence in the system and tells other corrupt policemen that they will not get away with it," he said.Meanwhile, acting provincial SAPS Commissioner Bala Naidoo said that for corruption to take place, there must also be corrupt residents involved. "For every corrupt officer there is a corrupt member of public and that's what people need to understand," said Naidoo.

Metro police spokesperson Supt Alec Wright agreed that the public consents to such corruption by paying bribes. "Unfortunately, a corrupt officer can tarnish the police image, but sometimes the public themselves are found guilty of entertaining the corruption by offering bribes to police," Wright said. He explained that officers who have been found guilty of corruption have been dealt with departmentally and even criminally.

This article was originally published on page 1 of Daily News on January 05, 2007