Warwick Bruce Chapman

To the Justice Verma Committee

I visited India in 2009 and to this day consider it the most interesting and friendly country I have ever visited. I would return in an instant if the opportunity arose.

India is known the world over for its association with peace, spirituality and vibrance. The Satyagraha that Mr Gandhi developed while in my country, South Africa, was pivotal to your nation’s own independence.

When I visited in 2009, it was clear then that, not unlike my own country, the general populace were beginning to grow very concerned with the disconnect between those elected to lead the country and the needs of the people. Corruption and all the ills associated with it seem to be a growing trend in developing countries like ours.

In South Africa we are just emerging from possibly the deadliest festive season in history as far as traffic fatalities are concerned, with an estimated 1600 people to have been killed on our roads in the past month. Corruption and poor management are to blame, with Police not doing enough about drunk and reckless driving, and other departments failing in their duty to keep unroadworthy vehicles off the roads.

I use this example because it shows how a government that no longer has its finger on the pulse, a government which is focused on political games and self-enrichment, is a government which does little to make the lives of their citizens, most especially the poor, any better.

The grotesque crime against Jyoti Singh Pandey in your country has been closely followed in mine. South Africa has one of the highest incidence of rape in the world and it is said that nearly two thirds of all South African men are rapists, just worse than the around one quarter of Indian men.

Rape in South Africa is another example of a serious issue which affects the lives of South Africans significantly and yet goes relatively unaddressed by our elected leaders. I expect our leaders to speak out on a regular basis about rape, gender discrimination, and the broader ills affecting our society caused by corruption but they do not.

But far more than that, in the second decade of the 21st century, it is high time that leaders started to actively do something about these crimes. The ability and willingless of our respective government machinery to investigate and prosecute rape cases leaves much to be desired. Often far more debilitating than the lack of competent forensic facilities, is the attitude of the investigators and other officials to the crime. Too many men regard rape as something that women must just get over, and far too many more regard rape as something that certain women ask for.

To that I say the following: “Rape is not something that happens to a certain type of woman. Rape is something perpetrated by a certain type of man.”

We need to sensitise our societies and sharpen our law enforcement to the point where the most despised and most harshly punished individuals are the perpetrators of rape.

A political leader who has an interest in maintaining access to the levers of power they so desire would do well to take this and related issues very seriously going forward. The Arab Spring of the past two years has shown the world that the general populace of any country, especially the youth, will tolerate only so much before they revolt. We needn’t ever learn that lesson again.

Please consider signing the petition here and sending an email to the Justice Verma Commission yourself.

Faithfully
Warwick Chapman
eThekwini, South Africa

STATEMENT BY CLLR WARWICK CHAPMAN
Umbilo Ward Councillor
eThekwini Municipality

MEC Willies Mchunu declines to hold Police accountable

DURBAN, 2 April 2012 – KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu, today spurned a request to secure commitments from the Umbilo Station Commander and the Provincial Commissioner of Police to embrace the CPF and the community, and to commit the Unbilo Police Station to fighting crime; a request that Democratic Alliance Cllr Warwick Chapman views as not only essential to addressing the problem of crime, but also in line with the police mandate in the South African Constitution.

During a 4-hour public meeting on 2 April 2012 to deal with the long running problems at the Umbilo Police Station, the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Transport, Community Safety and Liaison, Willies Mchunu spurned a request to secure commitments from the Umbilo Station Commander and the Provincial Commissioner of Police.

The Umbilo SAPS has been in the media over the past years for all the wrong reasons. Umbilo SAPS’s poor handling of rape cases, allegations of Police involvement in crime, particularly the explosion of drug-related crime, lack of action on known crime threats and lack of commitment to work with the CPF angered much of the Umbilo community. These frustrations boiled over into a public protest outside the Police station in February which caught the attention of the MEC who received a memorandum and committed to meeting with the community.

The situation exploded last week when Mthokozisi Ngcobo of Oliver Lea Drive in Umbilo was fatally stabbed by three attackers in Umbilo Park. Umbilo Park is a serious crime hotspot which has repeatedly been brought to the attention of Umbilo SAPS without any significant intervention ever having taken place. Police officers are said to have reverted that since they cannot drive their vehicles into the park, they cannot patrol it, dismissing requests that they do so on foot.

During the latter part of the public meeting I rose to acknowledge the intervention which had taken place by the MEC and Provincial Commissioner and request a commitment from the Station Commander to embrace the CPF and the community and commit his station to fighting crime, and that the Provincial Commissioner commit to handling any allegation of Police involvement in crime.

The MEC immediately rose and told the meeting “We are not here to hold the Police accountable. We are not here to extract commitments from the Police.” He then instructed both the station commander and the Provincial Commissioner that they need not build any such commitments into their responses to the issues raised during the meeting.

The MEC is absolutely incorrect. The problems at Umbilo SAPS are entirely the result of an absence of accountability and a lack of commitment from the Police. The community crime fighting partnership relies as a precursor on SAPS fulfilling its constitutional mandate to “effectively prevent, combat and investigate crime”. Securing a commitment from SAPS and ensuring they are held accountable are entirely appropriate under the circumstances.

The MEC in partnership with the Provincial Commissioner has a legal responsibility to play an oversight role and to ensure effective and accountable management of Police stations in KZN. To spurn a request to secure public commitment from the Police to do their jobs properly can be seen as nothing other than the MEC shielding the failure to deliver by SAPS management.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES:

Cllr Warwick Chapman
083 7797 094
warwickc@da.org.za

In December 2009 through a Parliamentary question outlined below, Dianne Kohler Barnard MP established that the moratorium has been lifted on 10 December 2009.

36/1/4/1/200900224
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY
FOR WRITTEN REPLY

QUESTION NO 2177
DATE OF PUBLICATION IN INTERNALQUESTION PAPER: 6 NOVEMBER 2009
(INTERNAL QUESTION PAPER NO 27- 2009)
Date reply submitted : 15 December 2009
Ms D Kohler-Barnard (DA) to ask the Minister of Police:
Whether the moratorium on recruiting new reservists will be lifted; if not, why not; ifso, when?

NW2883E

REPLY:

On Thursday 10 December 2009 the Minister of Police released a press statement informing people that the Moratorium on recruitment of reservists had been lifted.The lifting of this Moratorium will allow people who wish to volunteer their services on to assist the South African Police Service in the fight against crime to do so as long as they meet certain criteria laid down by the department.

Reply to question 2177 approved by Minister.

Then, in July 2010 I came upon a letter which explained to a Station Commander that while the moratorium had been lifted, it had actually not been lifted in practice. It is now over two years since the moratorium was lifted and still we are not recruiting reservists SAPS members to fight crime.

2010-07-28

The Station Commander
South African Police Services
Pinetown

Moratorium on Recruitment of Reservists : Question from Parliament by Ms D Kohler Barnard on 2009-11-06

1. Your minute 3/1/5/1/151 dated 2010-07-26 refers.

2. In the email requesting information on the subject matter received from the Pinetown Crime Prevention Commander it was not indicated that the matter was raised at a CPF meeting by Mr XXX and it was assumed that the CP Commander was making enquiries in order to expedite the recruitment of reservists, hence the brevity of the reply.

3. At a meeting held in Pretoria on 23 February this year between the Secretary to the Minister, M/s Jenny Irish-Qhobosheane and Brigadier Kennedy, the moratorium was discussed and it was made clear that despite the answer given in parliament and the subsequent Media Statement by the Minister, a decision had been taken by Division Visible Policing and Division Personnel Services that, pending the approval of the revised National Instruction and the completion of the necessary Naitonal Audit, recruiting and even reinstatement of ex members would of necessity remain on hold.

4. Subsequent to that meeting Brigadier Kennedy met with Brig J LeRoux, National Reservist Coordinator in the office of the National Commissioner had decided to impose a waiting period to allow for the conclusion of the Audit and publication of the revised National Instruction, before the lifting of the Moratorium would be confirmed by a letter from Divisional Commander, Personnel Services, whose office is the only instance who has the authority to make such a decision.

5. In view of the first-hand knowledge of these discussions, this office is of the opinion that the Minister is fully aware of the plans of National Head Office and the fear expressed by Station Commander XXX, in paragraph 7 of the above minute while understood and appreciated, is nevertheless not of consequence.

SIGNED
f/PROVINCIAL COMMISSIONER: KWAZULU-NATAL (Maj General)
B A NTANJANA S.O.E

I will be pressing our Shadow Minister of Police to pursue this issue with the new National Police Commissioner and ensure we start supplementing our regular force with reservists again as soon as is possible!

Why are we not focusing on crime prevention in South Africa?

“South Africa has had a comprehensive crime prevention policy agenda for some time in the form of the 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy and the 1998 White Paper on Safety and Security. Despite this, prevention has remained very much a second cousin within the South African criminal justice family, notwithstanding the fact that there is widespread agreement that it warrants far more attention.” — Julie Berg and Clifford Shearing in “The practice of crime prevention”

Crime prevention – 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy (NCPS) *

This is South Africa’s overarching policy on crime prevention. It was intended to be the guiding framework for a wide range of interdepartmental programs aimed at increasing safety. The four “pillars” of the NCPS covered improving criminal justice functioning, environmental design, community values and education, and transnational crime.

At its peak, the NCPS was seen as one of six pillars of the country’s National Growth and Development Strategy, a far-sighted move that recognized the vital role safety plays in development. However, the change of administration in 1999 ushered in a new approach to how government would deal with crime. Political pressure was mounting on government to deal with the rampant crime problem, and the longer-term approach of the NCPS was not appeasing the fears of the public or of politicians. In the end, shortrange thinking prevailed, the Growth and Development Strategy was shelved in favour of the Growth, Employment, and Redistribution Strategy (GEAR).

With the possible exception of victim support, most of the social programs envisaged by the NCPS never came to fruition.

Law enforcement – 2000 National Crime Combating Strategy (NCCS) *

The 1996 National Crime Prevention Strategy was largely drafted by a panel of civilians and was widely distributed for comment. The NCCS, on the other hand, was produced in-house by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and has never been issued as a public document. The NCPS was, in theory, an interdepartmental policy, while the NCCS is explicitly a security cluster matter.

These differences are indicative not only of the shift towards an overtly law enforcement approach to crime reduction but also of the pressure to respond quickly – which partly explains the lack of consultation and the NCCS’s focus on the police.

Adapted from the ISS’s “Crime and Crime Prevention in South Africa: 10 Years After“

The ANC attempted to bribe DA councillors in the Western Cape to move to the ANC. Cllr Thobile Dyonta was approached with an offer of 2 month’s salary to resign his seat in Breede Valley. Thobile met with ANC provincial leader Marius Fransman who tried to persuade him to give up his seat to the ANC. In Bitou, Cllr Nevelle de Waal was approached 6 times, offered a bribe of R900000 in cash, and any position he wanted.

Download the “Project Reclaim” Dossier here.

See the DA press release and the Politics Web coverage.