SA police face hardened criminals

JOHANNESBURG – Shinta had always dreamed of becoming a policewoman in South Africa, a public servant who could take on some of the world’s most dangerous criminals.

Now, three years after proudly putting on her uniform, she never patrols the streets alone for fear of being carjacked and is looking for another job. “I thought I could make a difference.But I make less money than anyone in the community I deal with.I get no respect,” said Shinta, who earns the equivalent of US$9 600 a year.”A lot of us are demoralised.They need to reform the entire police force or else crime will always be a big problem,” said the young woman, who did not want her surname used for fear of reprisal from the tightly controlled police department.Shinta and her colleagues are supposed to be at the forefront of efforts to make South Africa safe before the 2010 World Cup, a high-profile event the government hopes will highlight how far the country has come since apartheid.Fighting crime is a high-stakes battle the government can’t afford to lose, analysts say.Some have called it one of the biggest threats to the new South Africa.But underpaid and outgunned, police face increasingly brazen criminals who can blow up ATM cash machines at will and take people hostage and torture them in their own homes in robberies.”Before people were robbed when they were out.Now they are held hostage for hours in their homes,” said Carl Demontille, a branch manager at a private ambulance company.”Thieves pour hot oil over them and they take irons that you would use for ironing clothes and torture people with them.”Official crime statistics are staggering.In 2005-2006 there were 18 528 murders and 54 926 rapes.The government often argues it is difficult to extend post-apartheid law enforcement across an entire country when the police force was originally set up to protect whites only.South Africans, however, are growing tired of the excuses.Frustrations over crime nationwide are running so high that a trade union ordered 25 wheelbarrows to deliver at least 25 000 letters of complaint to President Thabo Mbeki, who has said crime is not out of control.GANG RAPE IN JAIL Faced with the growing outcry, the government has promised to increase funding for police and put more of them on the streets by the time hundreds of thousands of soccer fans and tourists descend on the country in three years.Johan Burger, a crime expert and former top policeman, said there was currently one policeman to every 373 South Africans, a figure he called comparable to some European nations and better than many African ones where the ratio is 1-to-1000.But he said throwing cash and manpower at the problem won’t help because positions have been filled with unqualified people in a drive to implement black economic empowerment.”There are many qualified people that form the backbone of the police force.But the backbone is being eroded by the irresponsible policy of trying to rush equity,” he said.”This problem filters down to policemen and women.”Questions arose recently at the very top of the force.National police chief Jackie Selebi, an anti-apartheid hero of the ruling African National Congress, admitted he was friends with Glen Agliotti, who was accused of being a drug kingpin and murdering a mining magnate.The two deny any wrongdoing.At rural Volksrust jail, officers were suspended pending an investigation after a woman was mistakenly put in a male cell where she was reportedly gang raped by six men throughout the night.Nothing was noticed until the morning shift changeover.Most crimes are black-on-black and some of the worst are committed in Johannesburg’s Hillbrow neighbourhood, where drug dealers appear relaxed on street corners as police drive by.But whites are suffering too and violence is targeting symbols of South Africa’s powerhouse economy, making the country’s business community uneasy.At Johannesburg’s fancy Village Walk mall off Nelson Mandela square, two thieves held up a busy restaurant during lunch hour.A shot was fired after the owner tried to grab one of their guns.No one was hurt.But the owner of a boutique upstairs was not so lucky.He was shot dead during another robbery.”RANSOM BY ROBBERS” “The police are not visible.We feel like we are being taken ransom by robbers.I wouldn’t feel safe in a bunker,” said Mbuso Ndlobo, one of the restaurant’s managers.With crime raging, police are under constant pressure to show they can quickly come to the rescue of victims.”I would say that the police don’t show up, or arrive late, 60 to 70 per cent of the time.They always have excuses.Most of the time we don’t believe them,” said paramedic Macdonald Lefakgomo, taking a break outside a trauma unit.Captain Bhekizizwe Mavundla, spokesman at police headquarters in Hillbrow, said the police have many successful strategies but he could not name a specific one.”You have to apply different strategies to each crime – knifing, shooting, stabbing, poisoning or someone being thrown off the top of a building,” he said.Some officers look for relief from their uphill battle with ruthless and sophisticated criminals.On a recent afternoon in Hillbrow, a policeman pulled his vehicle up to a row of shops, not to respond to a call, but to flirt with a young woman.”It’s the end of the month, people are paid.Robbers will be all over the place in an hour or so,” he said, relishing his moment of calm.Nampa-Reuters”I thought I could make a difference.But I make less money than anyone in the community I deal with.I get no respect,” said Shinta, who earns the equivalent of US$9 600 a year.”A lot of us are demoralised.They need to reform the entire police force or else crime will always be a big problem,” said the young woman, who did not want her surname used for fear of reprisal from the tightly controlled police department.Shinta and her colleagues are supposed to be at the forefront of efforts to make South Africa safe before the 2010 World Cup, a high-profile event the government hopes will highlight how far the country has come since apartheid.Fighting crime is a high-stakes battle the government can’t afford to lose, analysts say.Some have called it one of the biggest threats to the new South Africa.But underpaid and outgunned, police face increasingly brazen criminals who can blow up ATM cash machines at will and take people hostage and torture them in their own homes in robberies.”Before people were robbed when they were out.Now they are held hostage for hours in their homes,” said Carl Demontille, a branch manager at a private ambulance company.”Thieves pour hot oil over them and they take irons that you would use for ironing clothes and torture people with them.”Official crime statistics are staggering.In 2005-2006 there were 18 528 murders and 54 926 rapes.The government often argues it is difficult to extend post-apartheid law enforcement across an entire country when the police force was originally set up to protect whites only.South Africans, however, are growing tired of the excuses.Frustrations over crime nationwide are running so high that a trade union ordered 25 wheelbarrows to deliver at least 25 000 letters of complaint to President Thabo Mbeki, who has said crime is not out of control. GANG RAPE IN JAIL Faced with the growing outcry, the government has promised to increase funding for police and put more of them on the streets by the time hundreds of thousands of soccer fans and tourists descend on the country in three years.Johan Burger, a crime expert and former top policeman, said there was currently one policeman to every 373 South Africans, a figure he called comparable to some European nations and better than many African ones where the ratio is 1-to-1000.But he said throwing cash and manpower at the problem won’t help because positions have been filled with unqualified people in a drive to implement black economic empowerment.”There are many qualified people that form the backbone of the police force.But the backbone is being eroded by the irresponsible policy of trying to rush equity,” he said.”This problem filters down to policemen and women.”Questions arose recently at the very top of the force.National police chief Jackie Selebi, an anti-apartheid hero of the ruling African National Congress, admitted he was friends with Glen Agliotti, who was accused of being a drug kingpin and murdering a mining magnate.The two deny any wrongdoing.At rural Volksrust jail, officers were suspended pending an investigation after a woman was mistakenly put in a male cell where she was reportedly gang raped by six men throughout the night.Nothing was noticed until the morning shift changeover.Most crimes are black-on-black and some of the worst are committed in Johannesburg’s Hillbrow neighbourhood, where drug dealers appear relaxed on street corners as police drive by.But whites are suffering too and violence is targeting symbols of South Africa’s powerhouse economy, making the country’s business community uneasy.At Johannesburg’s fancy Village Walk mall off Nelson Mandela square, two thieves held up a busy restaurant during lunch hour.A shot was fired after the owner tried to grab one of their guns.No one was hurt.But the owner of a boutique upstairs was not so lucky.He was shot dead during another robbery. “RANSOM BY ROBBERS” “The police are not visible.We feel like we are being taken ransom by robbers.I wouldn’t feel safe in a bunker,” said Mbuso Ndlobo, one of the restaurant’s managers.With crime raging, police are under constant pressure to show they can quickly come to the rescue of victims.”I would say that the police don’t show up, or arrive late, 60 to 70 per cent of the time.They always have excuses.Most of the time we don’t believe them,” said paramedic Macdonald Lefakgomo, taking a break outside a trauma unit.Captain Bhekizizwe Mavundla, spokesman at police headquarters in Hillbrow, said the police have many successful strategies but he could not name a specific one.”You have to apply different strategies to each crime – knifing, shooting, stabbing, poisoning or someone being thrown off the top of a building,” he said.Some officers look for relief from their uphill battle with ruthless and sophisticated criminals.On a recent afternoon in Hillbrow, a policeman pulled his vehicle up to a row of shops, not to respond to a call, but to flirt with a young woman.”It’s the end of the month, people are paid.Robbers will be all over the place in an hour or so,” he said, relishing his moment of calm.Nampa-Reuters