The last place you would expect to be shot
’User-friendly’ police stations have become killing grounds
LEE-Anne Britz could not have been happier that her husband, veteran policeman Steven, was on charge office duty. A police station, after all, should be the safest place in the country.
But on April 16 last year, a gang of robbers casually walked into the Klapmuts police station near Paarl in the Western Cape and killed the father of two.
“Steven was on the phone when they burst in. They forced him to put the phone down and took him to the safe to open it. It was there, in a back room, that one of them told him to drop down on his knees with his hands on his head when he was shot in the back of the head,” said Britz this week.
The murder was among at least a dozen recorded at police stations around the country since 2011.
The police failed to respond to detailed questions sent on Tuesday. On Friday, Brigadier Vish Naidoo said: “You must appreciate that whenever you request information we rely on certain divisions who generally source this information. The best we can do is pressure them to assist us amid their hectic schedules.”
Last week, South Africa was left stunned when the Alexandra police station in Johannesburg was cordoned off with police tape. It, too, became a murder scene after Constable Ronnie Masie, who had earlier been stripped of his firearm, returned to kill his girlfriend and three other people, including Major Thomas Moetlo, who was taking a statement from Masie’s girlfriend, who was there seeking a protection order against him.
The Alexandra shooting brought back frightening memories for Lieutenant-Colonel Thandi Mkhize, who was shot 18 times by a colleague at the Rosebank police station in Johannesburg four years ago.
The 48-year old has had numerous operations to remove bullets from various parts of her body, and suffered a stroke and a heart attack in-between the extensive medical rehabilitation she has had to undergo as a result of that incident.
She was at work when a former colleague and friend, Constable David Kekana, burst into her office and shot her.
He left her for dead, then went to the office next door to pump four bullets into Captain Neelavathi Naidu, Mkhize’s best friend.
Kekana killed himself after being confronted by a male colleague.
The police and the Independent Police Investigative Direc- DOING HIS JOB: Steven Britz, who was killed at Klapmuts police station last year torate, which investigates police wrongdoing and criminality, were unable to provide a definitive figure of the number of shootings at police stations.
The cases the Sunday Times traced via old media reports include robberies, random shootings and domestic or work disputes. But what these cases all show is how easy it is for someone to walk into a police station to commit murder.
Mpho Kwinika, president of the South African Policing Union, said security at police stations was to blame for such incidents.
“They [police management] NIGHTMARES: Lieutenant-Colonel Thandi Mkhize, a former station commander at the Rosebank police station, was shot multiple times in 2011
We need to go back to basics. A police station should have one entrance
claimed they needed a more user-friendly environment that is open to the public, but that is also one of the biggest risks in that anyone could just walk in,” he said.
“Police stations are not safe at all. When you go outside, you take your bulletproof vest and gun . . . but when you are in the office you think you are safe. You can have a cup of coffee or talk about a case with a colleague and you’re not prepared for anyone to walk in with a gun.
“You can just walk into the Meadowlands police station, for example, and walk around and no one will ask you what you are doing there,” said Kwinika. “We need to go back to the basics. A police station should have one entrance, you should be asked where you’re going and what you want to do,” he said.
Mkhize, who has been with the SAPS for nearly three decades, said she harboured no anger towards Kekana even though he took away her best friend and her ability to do the job she loved.
“I still have nightmares,” she said. “This thing of Alex, it really disturbed me.”
Brigadier David Ngcobo, the Alexandra station commander, visible policing head Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Modukanele, and the shift commander, Warrant Officer Ezekiel Masupa, have been suspended pending an internal investigation.
This would centre on why Masie was allowed to sign out a firearm when he was already facing disciplinary action.
Britz, meanwhile, does not have the words to describe the pain her husband’s death has caused.
“I don’t think I’m feeling anything at the moment. It’s been extremely difficult. It was the worst possible thing that could happen. My boys are extremely angry because they were very close to their dad,” she said.
Her husband’s alleged killers, one of them a former colleague at Klapmuts police station, are scheduled to appear in the High Court in Cape Town next week.
She said she had been asked to attend the trial later this year, but doubts she will be able to sit through it.
She has lodged a civil claim against the police, mainly because she believes security at Klapmuts is still inadequate.
“I’m only doing it for the safety of the Klapmuts police station. I’m not doing it for any other reason at all.”