The justice system in the Western Cape is coming apart in a toxic cocktail of sloppy police work and incompetence in detection.
|||Cape Town - An explosive new report paints a grim picture of the policing system in the Western Cape coming to pieces in a toxic cocktail of sloppy police work and incompetence in detection.
So low were the standards of crime management uncovered that instances were noted where violent criminals were transported with witnesses called to testify against them at court appearances.
The Department of Community Safety set up a “Watching Briefs” team to attend court cases – with emphasis on gang-related crimes – to assess how police investigations and prosecutions were handled, and was shocked to discover the poor standard of police work that went into these cases.
The team included legal experts in the department and post-graduate law students under the leadership of senior advocate JC Gerber, who attended court cases, made observations and reported their findings after almost a year in the field.
The report found that “some witnesses are transported with the accused, resulting in witnesses either refusing to testify or giving watered-down testimony for fear of reprisals or death”.
It added that in a recent gang-related murder in Parow, the State witness, who was also awaiting trial in another matter, was held in custody at the same prison as the accused.
“On the trial date the witness and the two accused (all three in custody) were transported to court in the same vehicle.
“At court the witness informed the prosecutor that he withdrew his statement and he refused to testify.
“The witness was the only witness to link the two accused with the commission of a murder.”
Other highlighted incidents from the recently released report include:
l In a case in Grassy Park, police remained in their vehicles at what they thought was an accident scene and failed to notice shell casings strewn across the road. Forensic Pathology Services officials had to point out the casings to them. It was discovered that the deceased had been shot 13 times.
l
In a case involving a Philippi murder, the investigating officer did not take separate statements from the six State witnesses and, instead, let all six sign a single statement.
l In a Hout Bay murder case, the police docket was not made available to the prosecution before the accused applied for bail. As a result, the prosecutor did not know the accused had several previous convictions and pending cases. He was released on R300 bail.
l In a Kleinvlei case, warrants for the arrest of police officers were issued after they failed to appear as witnesses.
l In an Elsies River gang-related case, a female police officer – the sole witness – deviated from her original statement implicating the accused, jeopardising the State’s case and resulting in an acquittal.
l In the Wynberg Regional Court, a magistrate acquitted three men of a gang-related shooting because the single State witness deviated from her statement. It was later discovered a reservist constable had not recorded her version.
Western Cape Community Safety MEC Dan Plato said of the team’s work:
“The aim is to provide police management with the necessary information which would ultimately assist them to improve police performance and their conviction rates.”
The general findings of the report were:
l Failure of some investigators to ensure dockets are at courts timeously has emerged as a major challenge.
l Statements were routinely poorly taken and crimes inadequately investigated.
l Witnesses were not subpoenaed timeously, and so did not turn up at court.
l Deliberate failures were noted on the part of the police to comply with instructions from prosecutors on taking statements and managing cases in such a way as to boost the chances of securing a conviction.
However, police union Popcru called the exercise a witch-hunt.
“To put a watchdog in place to monitor police is one thing, but to use them to criticise and paint a bleak picture of the police is just malicious. We understand that a lot of our members are under pressure and stress, but this witch-hunt against them is not helping anybody,” said Fransisco Fields, Popcru’s Western Cape chairman.
Weekend Argus