Marikana: An unaccountable Commissioner has real implications for the safety of South Africans
4 August 2015
Note to Editors: These are the remarks made at a press conference in Parliament today by the DA’s Chief Whip,John Steenhuisen MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, Dianne Kohler Barnard MP and Shadow Deputy Minister of Police, Zakhele Mbhele MP, on the failed National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega’s contribution to the Marikana Massacre and to the decline of the SAPS.
The DA will today make submissions to President Jacob Zuma detailing the factors that have rendered the National Police Commissioner (NPC), Riah Phiyega, unfit for her current position as the operational and administrative head of the South African Police Service (SAPS). Her failings over the past three years have contributed in no small measure to the decline of the SAPS and affected the service’s ability to safely protect ordinary South Africans. If we are to fight crime, and protect our people, we need the best possible National Police Commissioner at the helm of our police service.
The DA has from the very beginning contended that Commissioner Phiyega’s appointment by President Zuma was a mistake in the first instance and that her track record does nothing else but to motivate that the President, as her appointing authority in terms of section 207(1) of the Constitution, should dishonourably discharge Commissioner Phiyega for her apparent inability to restore a SAPS in rapid decline.
Should the President fail to act in this regard the DA will consider all its options to compel him to do so which includes but is not limited to seeking a legal opinion to determine the rationality of his inaction to discharge her.
This comes after she barely met the 31 July 2015 deadline to make representations to President Zuma regarding her fitness for office as required by the Farlam Commission’s report that scathingly indicted her conduct that contributed to the Marikanna Massacre, which saw 44 people killed by the police.
In her representations, NPC Phiyega has effectively attempted to blame her predecessor, Bheki Cele, for the militarisation of the South African Police Service (SAPS) which she implied contributed to the death of the 44 mine workers at Marikana.
Whether or not this is true is irrelevant considering that she congratulated the SAPS for their actions on that day and publicly endorsed their conduct which we contend makes her complicit in the SAPS’s actions. She cannot now distance herself ex post facto to save her own skin.
The fact of the matter is that the impact of the militarisation of the SAPS was seen at Marikana as well as with the increasing levels of police brutality. The re-introduction of Apartheid-era military ranks and the concomitant “shoot-to-kill” mentality by Mr Cele, and retained by the current National Commissioner, has led to a situation where our police now treat the public as the enemy rather than serving to protect them.
Importantly as the sitting National Police Commissioner she bares ultimate operational and administrative responsibility for the SAPS and cannot simply abandon her responsibilities when it is politically expedient for her to do so.
Instead of admitting responsibility and stepping down, Commissioner Phiyega’s response to the massacre has been one of disdain for the investigative process and disregard for the loss of life. This is a clear indication that she is not at all concerned about the bereft loved ones that were lost at Marikana and so many others who are killed at the hands of police across the country as they exercise their constitutional right to protest for better service delivery and living standards.
The Farlam Commission of Inquiry found the following:
SAPS’s evidence before the Commission showed that senior SAPS officials acting under the National Commissioner’s supervision and seemingly sharing the National Commissioner’s views, took irrelevant political considerations into account in conducting operations at Marikana.
The Commission’s determination was that the National Commissioner herself participated in inappropriate discussions about political considerations regarding the operation.
The National Commissioner’s assertion during her testimony that she was unable to recall her conversation with the North West Police Commissioner, Lieutenant-General Zukiswa Mbombo, was both unsatisfactory and unconvincing.
The National and Provincial Commissioners had seen the representations made by the SAPS prior to being submitted to the Commission and they would have been well aware of some of the omissions and misleading information contained therein.
The Commission itself stresses National Commissioner Phiyega’s inexperience in policing when it states that“The National Commissioner…had been appointed to head the SAPS just a few months earlier, after receiving professional training in social work and having had a professional career focused largely on human resources and on the management of state enterprises. She had no policing expertise and experience whatsoever.”
Given these findings, she should not represent our police service and tarnish the good name of so many hardworking officers who themselves risk their lives to keep South Africans safe every day.
Over and above her conduct on that fateful day; Commissioner Phiyega has nothing short of an abysmal record as the National Police Commissioner because she has time and time again demonstrated her complete inability to arrest the decline of the SAPS.
Her tenure at the helm of the police service has been mired in controversy that has most likely stemmed from her incompetence as police chief to the detriment of the citizens whose everyday safety needs rely on a properly managed, trained and resourced SAPS.
Following the tenures of Mr Jackie Selebi and of Mr Bheki Cele, the tenure of Commissioner Phiyega, as the SAPS’s Accounting Officer, served only to compound mismanagement at the SAPS.
Her failings as Police Commissioner include but are not limited to:
Irregular expenditure at the SAPS which stabilised at R76 million for the 2010-11 financial year has, since the current National Police Commissioner’s tenure, steadily risen to R150 million. Almost R7 million of that was spent irregularly in just two years of her management.
R40 million was reportedly spent on entertainment performances and recreation-related activities.
The alleged abuse and spurious use of pension payouts for SAPS members under section 35 of the SAPS Act which amounts to R33.3 million in the last five years which Commissioner Phiyega either seems unable to arrest or has actively participated in.
The lack of basic services, including water, electricity and sanitation, at more than 150 police stations across the country which was uncovered following an investigation by the Public Service Commission at the request of the DA.
The annual crime statistics release has now been bungled twice in the two years under this National Commissioner. There has been a substantial increase in serious crime on her watch, being murder, attempted murder, robbery with aggrevating circumstances and common robbery.
Mr R Mdluli, the disgraced Head of Crime Intelligence, remains on suspension, leaving the Crime Intelligence Unit relatively directionless while raking in R4 million of taxpayers money for three years doing nothing. Effective crime intelligence would have gone a long way in ensuring that xenophobic violence was detected and mitigated before it rose to the levels it did and saved many South Africans and saved the lives and livlihoods of South Africans and foreign nationals alike.
No decisive action has been taken against members of the SAPS who have been found to have criminal records – Commissioner Phiyega’s interventions in this regard have been unsatisfactory. The Boards of Inquiry established to address this problem were found to be unlawful and the 1448 convicted criminals remain and are being promoted up the ranks of the police service.
Police brutality and corruption have become the norm and no longer shock the South African citizenry which now fears the SAPS as it did during the Apartheid era.
The 2011 plan to prevent Police murders has not been implemented, resulting in increased deaths, and mandatory psychological debriefing has not been introduced, resulting in increased family murder/suicides by police officers.
The National Commissioner has failed to address the 39 000 operational SAPS members without firearm competency certificates - a massive increase from the 21 000 in 2012. There are also at least 20 000 operational SAPS members without driver’s licences.
Detectives remain untrained or poorly trained and are burdened with huge numbers of cases and that, coupled with a lack of training for first responders, has seen crime scenes destroyed in terms of forensic evidence. Detectives have also been deployed to various task teams, leaving their dockets neglected. The SAPS conviction rates remain unacceptably low.
Irregular promotions of unqualified junior officers over experienced senior officers has become the norm and has destroyed morale.
The NPA has determined that she should face a disciplinary hearing after being recorded tipping off the Western Cape Provincial Commissioner that he was under investigation.
The KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Commissioner is under investigation by the IPID as a result of her close personal relationship with a man who had been arrested and faced numerous charges. The NPC signed another five year contract for her notwithstanding.
The Minister of Police has already launched an investigation into her performance, pre-empting the Board of Inquiry the President must, in terms of the law, appoint to determine her fitness for office. High ranking officers have spoken out about her failings in this document.
The wasted money highlighted above should be earmarked to better train, resource and equip our men and women on the police service to take pride in protecting the citizens and not manipulate and compromise the SAPS.
It is important to state that in no uncertain terms does the DA take pleasure in the multitude of deficiencies at the hands of Commissioner Phiyega because it is ultimately the people of South Africa who so desperately need to have a SAPS they can trust in order to feel safe that ultimately bear the brunt of a disintegrating police service because the resourcing needs that the current SAPS leadership, under her baton, have failed to curb.
The most recent crime stats released in September last year have revealed that 47 people are murdered each day in this country. This has gone up from the previous year and the DA has lost faith that this year’s crime stats will be any better.
Considering the information and evidence outlined above, the DA believes that Ms Phiyega is unfit to occupy that office.
Accordingly, the DA trusts that the any inquiry which takes place will be holistic in assessing the competencies and performance of the current police Commissioner.
This is why President Zuma must pull his head out of the sand, diligently engage the Marikana report and these submissions and take action if he is to protect South Africans from crime committed by criminals and criminal cops alike.
This is why he must discipline and fire Riah Phiyega. The safety of our people depends on it.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, August 4 2015
