14 Jun 2006: ISS Today: South Africa: Police Officers Arrested for Theft

14 June 2006: South Africa: Police Officers Arrested for Theft
 News24

 

 

It has been reported that two police officers were arrested for theft in Musina (Limpopo province).  These officers are suspected of stealing R14 000 and $210 from a police safe.  The incident has been confirmed by Superintendent Ailwei Mushavhanamadi of the South African Police Service. The missing money is reported to have been taken from ‘Zimbabwean smugglers’. The story links this incident to the one that took place in Benoni during May 2006.  In the latter incident money had been recovered and placed at Benoni station for safe-keeping.  The money had been recovered after the widely reported Johannesburg International Airport armed robbery in which millions (in foreign currency) were stolen.  

 

Commentary

 

One of the key challenges that the criminal justice system faces is the building and maintaining of the public levels of confidence.  The police, being the access point to the whole criminal justice system, need to be seen as trustworthy.  Members of the public need the assurance that police officers can be entrusted with their problems.  Should this not be the case, members of the public are likely to be discouraged from reporting cases to the police. People report property crimes to the police for two reasons.  First, in the hope that the stolen goods will be returned to the owner, and second for insurance purposes.  In the latter, people need to acquire a reference number so that they can claim compensation from their insurance companies.  

 

Those who report for insurance purposes are least affected by a theft such as the one that took place in Musina. It is of little significance to them that the recovered property disappeared in the police station, as they can still recover their losses from the insurance company. The problem is for those people who have an expectation that their property will be returned. These people are, for good reasons, unlikely to trust the police. When people distrust the police with their cases, they are more likely to resort to their own methods, such as vigilantism. Research has shown that people involved in acts of vigilantism often justify these on the basis of police inefficiency and corruption. This is undoubtedly the rationale that popularised and sustained vigilante groups such as Mapogo-a-Mathamaga.

 

While these two cases (Benoni and Limpopo) are unlikely to lead to acts of vigilantism, they do surely undermine public confidence in the police and, by extension, the whole criminal justice machinery. This should be particularly worrying given that it follows shortly after the public release - and media coverage that followed - of a UN report that found a significant degree of corruption within the South African criminal justice system. 

 

In all fairness, the SAPS cannot be expected to be completely without a blemish. There will always be incidents such as this one. The challenge is for the system to put measures in place to ensure that the men and women in blue with corrupt tendencies find it difficult to steal. It is also crucial that when these thefts happen, swift action be taken.  It is therefore comforting that arrests have been made in both incidents. The South African public deserves nothing less than a thorough investigation of these cases and a conviction of the way-ward police officers. Only investigations can reveal if the people arrested are indeed the people who committed these crimes. Even if the suspects are eventually acquitted, there remains the undisputable fact that members of the SAPS are involved in these recent thefts and this undoubtedly tarnishes the image of this very important institution of law enforcement.

 

Boyane Tshehla