The memorial service for slain Constable Dumile Thethani became the latest battleground between the ANC, the DA and police.
|||Cape Town - The memorial service for slain Constable Dumile Thethani on Monday became the latest battleground between the ANC, the police and the DA provincial government over crime on the Cape Flats.
Thethani, 38, was shot and killed during a routine crime prevention patrol in Nyanga last Monday.
Two other police officers were killed in separate incidents in Khayelitsha on the same night. Constable Lungisa Depha, 34, was shot and killed in Spine Road at around 8pm; while an hour later, Sergeant Landile Yengo, 43, was killed at his home in Khayelitsha while getting ready to go to work. Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said no arrests had been made.
Speaking at Thethani’s memorial service in Parow, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said the DA provincial government’s criticism of the police made them vulnerable to attack by criminals.
“When the police are portrayed as being useless, are bad-mouthed and shown disrespect by the provincial leadership, criminals think that it is justified to attack them,” he said.
There were more attacks on the police in the Western Cape than in any other province - six police officers had been murdered in the province since the beginning of the month, Mthethwa said.
Instead of criticising the police, Community Safety MEC Dan Plato should clear himself of allegations that he was secretly in cahoots with gang bosses on the Cape Flats, said Mathethwa. These allegations are contained in a dossier recently handed to the police by the provincial ANC.
Also speaking at the service, the ANC’s provincial chairman, Marius Fransman, accused Plato of having “criminal” links with gangs. These allegations have been denied by Plato at every turn since surfacing in the media more than a week ago. On Monday, Plato hit back at Mthethwa and Fransman - accusing them of “playing politics while people are being killed”.
Plato has maintained that the attacks on his character, and the attempts by Mthethwa to undermine his department’s role as an “oversight body” to the police, feed into the ANC’s campaign to win back the province in general elections in 2014.
“Every attempt being made by the Western Cape government to improve policing through (constitutionally enshrined) oversight has been blocked, undermined, and prevented by the ANC national government,” he said.
As examples, Plato cited Mthethwa’s opposition to:
* A commission of inquiry into policing in Khayelitsha.
* The Community Safety Act, which would improve policing oversight in the province.
* The reinstatement of a specialised gang and drug police units.
* The call for the army to be deployed to gang-ridden areas.
“Police management needs to urgently fix identified problems in policing in this province so that trust can be built up… in the police service,” he said.
In spite of the politically charged atmosphere at Thethani’s service, an emotional eulogy by younger brother Thembelani Thethani reminded officers that they had lost a dedicated and admired colleague.
“He was like a father to me and the backbone of our entire family.
“My brother was a very thoughtful person, he threw himself completely into his work… He died protecting the people of this country,” said Thethani.
He said he had no comment on the “politics” surrounding his brother’s murder.
“My concern is to be there for my brother’s young children and the rest of my family.”
Dumile Thethani, a former member of the police’s flying squad, will be buried in his home town of Mthatha on Sunday.
daneel.knoetze@inl.co.za
Cape Argus
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