IFP demands a tangible and urgent plan to deal with corrupt law-enforcement officials
20 June 2019
The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal demands that the KZN MEC of Community Safety and Liaison, Mxolisi Kaunda must present an urgent and well-devised plan with implementable measures and timeframes of how he intends to dealing harshly with corruption in the law-enforcement sector that includes graft in all ranks, bribery, sextortion by law-enforcement officers in this province.
This comes after a report titled Corruption in Uniform: When Cops become Criminals published by the Corruption Watch exposed disturbing levels of graft, bribery, abuse of power, failure to act and dereliction of duty by officials in all ranks of law-enforcement including station commanders, sergeants and warrant officers.
The image and role of law-enforcement officials has been, over the years severely compromised due to corruption and therefore we demand a no-nonsense approach that will swiftly expose and assist to weed out all affected officials in the police service. Hundreds of serving police officers are allegedly to be hard core criminals and belong to jail.
It is extremely disappointing to find out that police officers who have been entrusted by the laws of the Republic of South Africa to protect and serve us are the same people who are criminals. A blame goes to the failure of police recruitment and human resource processes for failing to conduct thorough background checks to verify credibility of officials on a continuous basis.
Our government needs to realise that the impact of corruption in the police are far reaching. When basic functions of law and order are compromised by corrupt practices within a police force, the state cannot legitimately prevent and punish violations of the law or protect human rights and this is the case in this country. Our people’s mistrust of the police, render it even more difficult for the police to perform what should be their primary task, countering crime. This has perpetuated the mob justice cases in the recent years as our people feel betrayed by law-enforcement officers.
We therefore demand that the MEC must urgently intervene with a proper plan that will give hope to the citizens of this province.
He must ensure that the responsibility of policing is left in hands of principled, trustworthy and accountable officials. We call for removal of greedy, politically influenced, ethically compromised individuals and those police officers who use the profession as a ‘get rich quick’ scheme.
Issued by Blessed Gwala, IFP KZN Spokesperson on Community Safety and Liaison, 20 June 2019
