Train our police to act with sensitivity, not brutality

The brutal murder of Nateniël Julies is a stark reminder that our efforts to combat police brutality and strengthen accountability still fall woefully short.

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has to take steps to protect lives and strengthen the safety of our communities.

It would be wise to invest more money in our police — to provide them with more training for dealing with tense situations and on techniques to subdue suspects without injuring or killing them.

We need to make police more sensitive and responsive to their communities. We need them to be better trained in race relations and arrest techniques. We need to identify and remove officers who apply their racism to their jobs.

We need law enforcement to be more transparent and answerable for their actions. And we need to keep holding them accountable.

There is also an urgent need for peer intervention. Peer intervention training instils the idea that officers have a duty to act as a check on their fellow officers’ misconduct, such as using excessive force, planting evidence or lying in reports, and that police are legally obligated to quickly stop an officer from committing an act of improper policing.

Hopefully our police will be able to provide a more effective service, which will put them in a position to fulfil their mission of creating a safe and secure environment for all who live in SA.

Zaakir Said, Durban

Mthombothi is absolutely right

In his article, “Mthombothi is wrong, Ramaphosa is rebuilding our country brick by brick” (August 30), Lumko Mtimde, the special adviser to the minister in the presidency and an ANC and SACP member, defends President Cyril Ramaphosa by claiming that he is bound by the powers entrusted to him by the constitution, and cannot act ultra vires.

This is true, but Mthombothi criticised Ramaphosa as leader of the ANC, not as president of the country. In that capacity he has much wider powers to stop the rot, corruption and criminal patronage so rampant in the party he leads.

Mtimde claims that “the ANC remains fully committed to continue to work with the nation to create jobs, end poverty and build a better life for all”. Really? Remains fully committed? Continue to work with the nation? In other words: business as usual.

He continues: “Voters are not idiots.” I could not agree more. That is why these voters will no longer accept such facile platitudes. They have witnessed years and years during which ANC MPs staunchly defended their leader Jacob Zuma, all of them (including Ramaphosa, by the way) repeatedly voting against any effort to stop Zuma’s nefarious deeds, while shouting down and ridiculing anyone trying to call out his corruption and looting.

Voters have noted how compromised people like Mosebenzi Zwane, Tony Yengeni, Faith Muthambi, Bongani Bongo,

Tina Joemat-Pettersson and others have been appointed by the ANC as parliamentary committee chairs. Voters are aware that known corruption kingpins continue to occupy top leadership positions in the party. Voters are now discovering the shocking extent of Covid tender corruption within the ANC.

As Mtimde claims that “Ramaphosa is rebuilding our country brick by brick”, “to undo years of mayhem, collapse and destruction”, will he dare to tell us who broke it down in the first place?

No, Mthombothi is not wrong. He is absolutely right. The voters know that corruption is the glue that keeps the ANC together. And as he rightly says in his latest Sunday Times article: for the fight against corruption to succeed, the ANC must die. Roel H Goris, Knysna

Living in another country

Surely Lumko Mtimde does not really expect anyone to take his comments seriously. As a special adviser in the presidency he is merely looking after his job and clearly cannot be impartial.

You, Mr Editor, need to be commended for giving column inches for criticism of [columnist Barney Mthombothi’s] views, a scenario that is definitely not present in another newspaper group.

Mtimde must be living in another country because he tells us that children from poor communities have access to free education and 6-million workers have had their lives improved.

He obviously does not know about the programme by a financial journal that takes learning tools and books to remote communities who have 12-year-old children with the learning skills of sixyear-olds; and he conveniently omits to mention the horrific unemployment rate.

He is right that voters are not idiots and are tired of plan after plan that is drawn up to deal with job creation, corruption, social services — all of which never get past the embryo stage.

Mtimde should engage with people in the real world, where salaries and wages have to be earned and not just supplied because you work for the government.

Tony Ball, Gillitts, KwaZulu-Natal

More strength to her arm

Great interview by Chris Barron of our top investigator Hermione Cronje. Interesting to see details of progress on the coal front.

I just could not understand her comment: “I’ve been plodding along for a year with a substandard team.” There is no shortage of chartered accountants and legal eagles to join her team. And our national budget set aside R1.2bn in the medium term to prop them up. My hope is that the problem is not transformation. We are relying on her and waiting for the next progress report. Good luck!

Kenneth D Penkin, Cape Town

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