SAPS VIP Unit's "shoot first, ask questions later" mentality must be investigated

The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes the decision by the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) to agree to our request to conduct a full investigation into the VIP Unit of the South African Police Service (SAPS).

The ICD's decision follows an incident on a Gauteng highway involving VIP Unit officers, who reportedly shot at a vehicle which was deemed to have come too close to the President's motorcade. Officers then involved themselves in a scuffle with a television crew from the SABC, and confiscated their video footage of the incident. The DA calls for a criminal investigation into the actions of the VIP Unit officers, and the immediate return of all confiscated footage.

In recent months, the VIP Unit appears to have become a law unto itself. Officers belonging to the Unit have been involved in all manner of outrageous incidents - with little or no sign of any real steps being taken to counter their behaviour.

In Mpumalanga, a VIP officer has been named as a suspect in the attempted murder of a football club owner; another in KwaZulu-Natal faces charges for eight counts of attempted murder, after he shot at another vehicle while on his way to collect the province's Social Development MEC, and caused a head-on collision. In this context, Saturday's incident is not an isolated case, but rather one of many instances of callous disregard towards the interests of the public, from a unit of the Police Service which costs the taxpayer some R312 million annually to keep in operation.

It is unclear whether the officers involved in Saturday's incident received instructions to confiscate the SABC's material, or were simply acting of their own accord. Either way, the subsequent assertion that equipment was confiscated for "security reasons" makes a mockery of journalistic freedoms, and further damages the VIP unit's already fragile public image.

Although the SAPS has indicated that it will return the tape in due course, no public apology has been issued, and, perhaps more worryingly, no mention has been made of whether disciplinary steps will be taken against the officers in question.

In November, the DA wrote to the ICD, requesting a full investigation of the VIP Unit be carried out. The ICD has now confirmed that this investigation will be undertaken nationally as a matter of urgency - a step which we wholeheartedly welcome.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, MP, Democratic Alliance spokesperson on safety and security, January 5 2009