The metro police beach braai incident is an "isolated exception" for the City of Cape Town, says mayco member JP Smith.
|||Cape Town - The “highly regrettable” incident of four metro cops who searched members of the public and then used the money they found to buy meat for a braai is an “isolated exception” for the City of Cape Town, says JP Smith, mayoral committee member of safety and security.
Responding to reports of gross misconduct, and minor penalties ranging from counselling to five days’ suspension without pay, Smith said an independent audit of all serious disciplinary matters was under way to strengthen the way these cases were dealt with.
“The City of Cape Town is determined to root out all forms of misconduct among its law enforcement officials. It must be borne in mind that this highly regrettable incident is an isolated exception for the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police Department as the overall the disciplinary record of the Cape Town metro police (and the other services) is exemplary, based on a number of independent studies conducted on the metro police forces across South Africa.”
He said that prior to the safety and security portfolio committee meeting, where the details of the various cases considered before the city’s tribunal were discussed, it had already been decided to re-open the investigation of the four metro cops involved in the braai incident.
“The fact that the case was picked up by both the portfolio committee as well as the civilian oversight committee is proof the checks and balances of the city work well and that no case is allowed to slip through.”
Smith said the city had shown it would remove senior officers and the metro police chief if found guilty of misconduct. Former metro police chief Bongani Jonas was axed in 2009 for alleged fraud.
“Cape Town remains the only metro which makes disciplinary findings public by presenting the outcomes in open forums such as the portfolio committee meetings. It is also one of only two cities that have a functioning civilian oversight committee to ensure that matters such as these are subjected to independent scrutiny.
“We are also the only metro which makes the disciplinary findings public on the city’s website, demonstrating this administration’s commitment to transparency, accountability and good practice - without which the report in the media would not have been possible.”
anel.lewis@inl.co.za
Cape Argus