Well now this is an interesting take on things - let's just shift the blame shall we! In terms of this, it is not a murders fault that he/she killed someone, it's the victims fault for being there to be murdered.
Clearly I have the whole thing arse about face!
Let's see now . . . Isn't the whole point of having a police force is to maintain law and order? If we did not have a corrupt society and/or a lawless society, there would be no need for a police force. It was my understanding that the police were supposed to be above lawlessness and corruption, but clearly I have got the whole thing wrong!
Police who take bribes and who break the law, are in my opinion no better than the criminals that they track down and they should be punished in the same manner.
Believe it or not there are some men and women, in blue who are not corrupt and who do not take bribes and who try and uphold the law who are now being tarnished with the same brush as those who participate in these endeavours.
So, acting provincial SAPS Commissioner Mr Bala Naidoo, stop making excuses for yourself and your corrupt officials and instead of wasting everyone's time with these useless meanderings, start prosecuting the corrupt policemen and women and make them examples of what the people will no longer tolerate!
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
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