Researcher slams abuses in police management

A SENIOR researcher at the Crime and Justice Programme of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) has slammed the “long-standing abuses” in the appointment of leaders in the police service.

Dr Johan Burger said a multi-sectoral national police board should be appointed to undertake a performance and integrity assessment of the senior management echelon, starting with the 199 generals.

Burger said top commanders performing their functions well should have their authority enhanced, and those who failed should be redeployed or axed.

This followed reports that the organisation’s top officers were allegedly at war with each other. Burger said the problem was largely due to irregular and closed appointment processes of inappropriate people to the top ranks.

He said the result has been largescale corruption and the gross abuse of power.

“Eight different people have occupied the post of national police commissioner since 2000, seven of them since 2009. Of these eight, four have held the post in an acting ‘caretaker’ capacity, and four as full national commissioners.”

He said of the eight, one was convicted of corruption, one currently faces criminal charges, and separate inquiries recommended the removal of another two. “In one of these, the High Court, after seven years, set aside the inquiry’s report and subsequent dismissal,” said Burger.

He said the problem continued, with recent reports focused on the apparent internal battles between national police commissioner Khehla Sitole and Crime Intelligence divisional head Peter Jacobs.

“Sitole suspended Jacobs and five of the division’s top managers in November 2020 on allegations of irregular spending from the secret services account,” he said.

Burger said the conflict between Jacobs and Sitole had serious and negative implications for the Crime Intelligence Division and the country’s ability to tackle persistently high crime levels.

Police spokesperson Vish Naidoo dismissed claims of the suspension of Jacobs.

DA police spokesperson Andrew Whitfield said the infighting in the upper echelons of the police was causing instability which had crippled the police service.

Whitfield said the decisions surrounding Jacobs had left egg on the face of Sitole, while Police Minister Bheki Cele has publicly stated that he didn’t even know who was in charge of crime intelligence.

Whitfield said the DA believed that the ANC’s factional fights were playing out within the police and that Parliament needed to be fully briefed on the current leadership instability.

Chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on police, Tina Joemat-Pettersson, said it was a matter between Cele and Sitole. “We are not involved in their fights.”

Joemat-Pettersson said the committee was also not discussing the matter involving Jacobs.