‘Cops booze it up with criminals’
Protesting mob barricades Dimbaza police station entrance with rocks, concrete slabs
Murderers and rapists are paying police officers in booze at local taverns in return for them to turn a blind eye, angry Dimbaza residents have told provincial police management.
The accusations were made by about 300 residents who gathered outside the Dimbaza police station’s gates for three hours on Friday.
The mob brought operations to a standstill by barricading the gate with rocks and concrete slabs, preventing the police from relieving night shift officers and causing delays with prisoner transfers to the Zwelithsa and King William’s Town courts.
The police station has 45 patrol officers and 21 support staff.
Operational Response Services provincial head Capt John Dikela was locked in a tense standoff with the mob, trying to negotiate an end to the siege.
Community leader Siyabonga James told Dikela that detectives frequently boozed it up with criminals at taverns.
“How are you going to arrest someone who buys you a beer at a tavern?
“The detectives are useless, crime is rife, and elderly women are getting raped every night and detectives are dismissing the cases and the following day you see the suspect in that case drinking with the investigating officer,” James said.
Amanda Mthwaku, 27, said she feared for her life after one of the suspects in an idling truck of about 14 prisoners yelled her name.
“This is what we have to put up with, threats from these criminals.
“The guy who just called my name knows me and will come for me because he will be released soon. We are living in fear.”
Mthwaku said detectives released criminals back into the community without informing victims.
James said detectives in Dimbaza were “incompetent and lack capacity to investigate cases thoroughly”.
“They just do a lukewarm job so they can get paid at the end of the day.”
According to James, the protest came in the wake of five shops being broken into and stock looted.
The shop owners had been stabbed and wounded last week, he said.
“One of the guys is fighting for his hospital.
“We hunted the suspects down and apprehended three of them and interrogated them on record before handing them to the police with the tapes.
“The police told us there was no evidence. How do you explain that?” he said.
Responding to the crowd, Dikela said: “We don’t deal with unproven allegations, that is not how we operate.
“We will definitely take the allegations seriously and investigate.”
Dikela negotiated with the residents and convinced them to disperse, without any rubber bullets or stun grenades being fired.
“I am begging you guys, I am trying to prevent a clash because the public order police are standing by and I don’t want to give an order to them because they will open fire. That is what I am preventing.
“I propose that you go back and meet and draft a memorandum and call us to a meeting.
“The provincial commissioner is a very reasonable person who is always keen on hearing the grievances of community members.”
The crowd dispersed soon after Dikela addressed them.