In accordance with a formal complaint laid by Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler-Barnard, the Independent Complaints Directorate will assess whether the SAPS acted improperly at the ANCYL conference in Limpopo.
The basis for the allegations being that the South African Police Services acted upon instructions given by the president of the African National Congress Youth League, Julius Malema, and forcibly removed rival delegates.
Moses Dlamini, the ICD spokesperson confirmed that they will establish whether there was criminal conduct capable of investigation or control issues which need to be dealt with by the SAPS hierarchy.
Constitution
The objects and creation of a Police Service are set out in sections 205 – 208 of the South African Constitution :
Section 205 (2) National legislation must establish the powers and functions of the police service and must enable the police service to discharge its responsibilities effectively, taking into account the requirements of the provinces.
205(3) The objects of the police service are to prevent, combat and investigate crime, to maintain public order, to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, and to uphold and enforce the law.
206 (6) On receipt of a complaint lodged by a provincial executive, an independent police complaints body established by national legislation must investigate any alleged misconduct of, or offence committed by, a member of the police service in the province.
207 (2) The National Commissioner must exercise control over and manage the police service in accordance with the national policing policy and the directions of the Cabinet member responsible for policing.
South African Police Services Act
Preamble : Section 214 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1993 (Act No. 200 of 1993), requires legislation to provide for the establishment and regulation of a South African Police Service which shall be structured at both national and provincial levels and shall function under the direction of the national government as well as the various provincial governments.
Sections 11 to 13 cover the authority and duties of everyone from Commissioner down to members of the SAPS. It also confirms that where applicable the Criminal Procedures Act shall also be of full force and effect in as much as it applies to this act. (Of course it is always applicable as prevailing legislation)
Section 46 ‘Political activities of members’
46. (1) No member shall- (a) publicly display or express support for or associate himself or herself with a political party, organisation, movement or body;
(b) hold any post or office in a political party, organisation, movement or body;
(c) wear any insignia or identification mark in respect of any political party, organisation, movement or body; or
(d) in any other manner further or prejudice party-political interests.
In addition as set out in Section 207 (2) of the Constitution there is a national policing policy.
Authority
The President appoints a National Commissioner of the police service, to control and manage the police service. His powers and duties are then prescribed by the Constitution, the relevant acts, the national policing policy and the directions of the Cabinet member responsible for policing.
He then delegates these powers to subordinates who exercise them on his behalf.
Objectives
The police are there to prevent, combat and investigate crime, to maintain public order, to protect and secure the inhabitants of the Republic and their property, and to uphold and enforce the law.
Crucial to this process is the following :
Where they are called in, for example, by the ANCYL to maintain public order their independence is still intact and the discretion to intervene rests solely on those entrusted with this task by their superiors.
That the police understand that their mandate to intervene in the conference only becomes applicable if they witness a crime or believe that there is a genuine threat to public order. If the conference becomes rowdy that is not a criminal offence nor should they intervene unless ordered to by their commanders.
Under no circumstances should they ever take instructions from a political leader because unless he is the President he has no authority.
At best a political leader could point out the crimes that he/she alleges are being committed and thereafter leave it to the police discretion.
Limpopo
If regard is had to the contents of the video and reports from the Limpopo there does appear to be a number of infractions of the Constitution and the acts including but not limited to – unauthorised parties giving the police instructions, police removing one section of the delegates which may constitute playing party politics, using excessive force against delegates and infringing the rights of individuals whose only crime appears to have been their vocal disapproval of Malema.
Whether this constitutes criminal behaviour is doubtful in that it appears to be a case of everyone getting carried away by the antics of Malema. There was no police intention to favour Malema as such.
The police need to be told by their commanders that the next time anyone tells them what to do, and they are not their superiors, they should explain to them that any complaint or charge must go through formal channels or the matter be left to their discretion.
In terms of the conference itself there is no doubt that the use of the police as a political tool for own gain must place its legitimacy in question.
@ :”There was no police intention to favour Malema as such.”
I’n mot convinced of that. Remember, this is Limpopo, Malema’s home province. Remember, too, that he has personal body guards and ‘blue light’ status with regard to security and any combination of those could have handled the situation. The police were there to give the illusion of legitimacy to an orchestrated YL putsch.
The fact that the police readily agreed to obey Malema should outrage the country. Don’t the police know what their role is? Do not they not know that only Officers can issue orders? If they are that lacking in basic information about their jobs, why are they in those jobs?
No, Traps, given the way Cde Malema has accrued a coterie of thugs and enforcers around him, the history of charges of corruption, tender-fixing, harassment of opponents in Limpopo,, and the perception that Malema has been anointed as Zuma’s successor and has Zuma’s ear, it is far more likely that the police did his bidding with their personal futures in mind. Malema was treated by them as a ‘Chief’ whose word is law. What other ‘law’ is there? The Constitution?
What Constitution?
Prediction: Malema will be found to have acted correctly and the police will claim that there was incipient danger to the delegates and removed those identified as causing the ‘trouble’ that Malema himself had caused.
In other words, business as usual in the Limpopo.
@Siobhan
I suspect that you are 100% correct in your assessment.
However, you pose the question (presumably not rhetorically)
“Don’t the police know what their role is? Do not they not know that only Officers can issue orders? If they are that lacking in basic information about their jobs, why are they in those jobs?”
Based on my recent experiences of trying to report two crimes and lay criminal charges against the perpetrators, my answer to your question would be “probably not”.
Never mind the lacking of “basic information”, the two Police members that I dealt with could not even read and write properly, and could not take down a statement in either English or Afrikaans with any degree of accuracy, correct grammar or syntax.
Sad.
Traps,
The ANC have stated before that they are above the constitution. I believe this episode is just one more nail in the country’s coffin.
I think it is pretty clear that the police were NOT impartial in this case. This is where the authoritative style of governance is visable. If Malema and others like him are the future of SA then we will see our government becoming increasingly authoritative….very much like Zulu kings of old.
Which one are you arguing as being unconstitutional, Traps? Is it:
a) Malema’s reliance on the police, and using the latter for his ally’s political gain?
b) or, the police’s obedience of Malema’s “orders”?
Apart from the desperate attempt at fast-tracked political redemption by the cantankerous and profanity-prone Diane Kohler-Barnard, I personally see no success in her quest to drag Malema into the obvious police blunder. Malema will simply tell the ICD, if ever he were called to answer, that he summoned the help of the police when the political climate at the conference was so tense and hostile that the safety of other (rival) delegates would be compromised, and it was up to the police to make a judgment call of what to do to restore order at the conference.
And then the focus will shift to the police. Malema will be cruising to the next victorious ANCYL provincial conference and ANCYL national elective conference next year.
RSA has a bad case of Malemaitis which will not be brought under control or irradicated until he is hopefully and please God, voted out in the next ANCYL Leadership Conference. We are still allowed to hope and pray aren’t we?
@Peter L Thank you for your comment. Your experience confirms my worst fears about the basic competence of the SAPS. It is sad but also infuriating when you consider that the Malema-ist wing of the YL are largely illiterate or ‘un-literate’, that is, they could read if they made the effort but doing so is considered ‘counter-revolutionary’.
Malema’s empty rhetoric adjuring students to finish university cannot be taken seriously when he and his henchmen are patently ignorant of the world beyond the borders of SA, habitually substitute political slogans for thought, and impose their will by dint of force on those who disagree with them. The disgraceful incident at Limpopo is just a taste of the future under the ‘leadership’ of the Malema-ists. Ignorant, illiterate police are the just the sort of enforcers an African Pol Pot wants to have. If Malema admires the genocidal and xenophobic Mugabe, imagine how appealing the example of the anti-literate Khmer Rouge would be.
Good luck to the DA in their case with the ICD but I’m not ‘holding my breath’…
Clearly, the constitution has white tendencies. Probably written by bloody agents. And very soon, Dave Harris will come along and tell us how all of this is Helen Zille’s fault.
Hmm. I wish the DA all strength in their objection to this misuse of the SAPS, though we can have little hope of truth and justice until we see a radical turn against ANC and ANCYL misuse of State resources.
The fact the SA Police are now in “military” disguise only makes things much, much worse. It has been bad enough seeing so many news reporters hand them military status on a plate by falsely distinguishing from “civilians” (in the US fashion).
Let us all continue to make it quite clear that the Police Service is a civilian service, and NOT a military one, despite the Gilbert & Sullivan ranks and badges that were dished out with the cornflakes this year.
Ah no, Mr Liermann, I am sure Dave Harris would not be so predictable! I am sure we can rely on him to see the true objective essence of the issue and not regard it purely as political points scoring…. (smiles)
Yeah i think siobhan summed it all up and there isn’t much more to add to that. Some weeks back another thoughtleader blog referred to the relative impotence of the ICD, their huge action backlog, and their limited operational success rate. So minimal co operation there presumably.
One imagines that this curious example of police political interference in the internal arrangements of the ruling party could be equally attributable to incompetence, as some have suggested as due to some dire plot against the ruling clique, whoever they are.
The key attribute of success in any bureaucratically constructed system is relative mediocrity. Enough initiative to find the loopholes but not enough to upset the prescribed route. Thus anything more than routine carefully trained competence is not really demanded. I have recently had to report n accident to a the Hillbrow police station and found the service to be pleasant and competent . In the case of the video perhaps less competence was apparent.
This is however short sighted action on the part of the SAPS, and i would agree with nzs that the police seem to have made a judgement call that was possibly inappropriate to the circumstances.
It is not sensible for politicians of any ilk to politicize the Police agency. We know it was bad in the past and ours was not an isolated circumstance.
So how do you suggest that this action be monitored and reported on? Not everyone assumes the DA to be OK.
Well, it’s all a bit of a moot point – seeing as the appointment of police as his personal bodyguard already makes a travesty of the law.
“Peter L
I had the disappointing experience of having to spell the name of the town he was working in, to the SAPS police officer, at the charge office in the town where I was reporting an accident.
I do not want to get the chap into trouble so I will not mention the name of the town, but it consists of 7 letters.
Surely there must be a competency exam that these people have to pass before they are considered for a job in the police service.
Michael Liermann, do you have a crush on Dave Harries? You are right that our constitution has white tendencies it does not represent nor embody my culture, beliefs and outlook on life as an African…
Mtimande, Mabuya, Kunene…
nzs is of course right. Malema has no particular case to answer on this issue. Frankly, given all the other problems with the SAPS, this is simply another DA publicity stunt. Understandable, but frivolous and opportunistic.
Kohler-Barnard is an arch opportunist like her leader, Helen Zille! This party is notorious for wasting the taxpayers money with their misguided whining and moaning. One did not see the heroic DA laid criminal charges against their own councillor who was found guilty in a disciplinary hearing of defrauding the poor out of thousands of rands in a housing scheme in Cape Town. It was up to the ID to lay criminal charges!
Cmde Malema’s popularity is growing and we want to advise Kohler-Barnard that her hatred for Malema is a wasted emotion! She is insignificant. The ICD is also wasting its time to consider this facical charge!
If that’s the case – then let ‘em face the ‘law and legal’ music.
@The Creator
The reports that I have read all state that the DA laid a complaint with the ICD – ie against the Police – nothing to do with Malema.
I agree that on the face of it Malema has no case to answer – if the Police are so negligent / biased / stupid as to take orders from private citizens such as you, me or JM, it is hardly the private citizen’s fault for “taking the gap”.
If, however, JM used / abused his position to ensure that public resources (SAPS) were used for specific party political purposes, then there would be a case to answer by him as well as SAPS.
I also agree that the DA does at times seem to be tilting at windmills – not always the biggest ones.
@Joe
We need to look at the history of the curent SAPS to understand why so many members have such poor skills levels and education (conversion of “kitskonstables”, amalgamation of the former homelands units, many many more chiefs than Indians – there are very few members with the rank of Constable – an end run to circumvent low salary structures).
In my little seaside visdorpie, the Police vans are routinely used as part-time taxis, school vans and builders bakkies.
This is probably me being petty exposing such mild “corruption” / abuse / misuse of state resources.
However, if this Police force thinks nothing of using Police vans for purposes other than those intended or allowed, what else eould they turn a blind eye to?
Mtimande: I do in fact find uninformed apologism to be supremely erotic, so Dave Harris’ contributions turn me on like a truckload of viagra.
But I’ll bite: what elements of SA’s constitution clash with your culture, beliefs, and outlook on life and should therefore be regarded as overly “white”? Please tell us.
@Peter L, appreciated what you said..and maybe you have a point with:-”..I also agree that the DA does at times seem to be tilting at windmills – not always the biggest ones!”. The first thing that came to mind however, when I read your paraphrase..was the Mayor of NY, Guilliani’s…”Broken window” policy..ie. ?Tackling the smaller “criminal crimes/acts-creating that safe neighbourhood”, and thus, preventing the bigger/less manageable/more serious ones.. from developing…or, am I missing point here!!? I must say, perhaps in the DA’s defence..the ANC tend to break all the fundamental rules that stable, developing and progressive society’s function on. “Breaking Big Windows”..”breaking small windows”..it does seem like its all the same to them (Opportunity and Circumstances, dictate !..any thought beyond that..Naaah,that I dont think comes into the equation)..so at times, I can imagine..it must be hard to know where to start to try curtail /put a halt to many of their ?illegal ?unconstitutional ?immoral etc.. excesses!?
Michael Liermann, when Dave argues it is not uninformed apologism as you say. You must walk a meter in a blackman’s shoes before refering to any arguement against your belief as such.
King Zwelithini was challanged by European nonconformist using their white tendancy embodied by the constitution to stop Umkhosi wokweshwama.
Tony Yengeni was also a victim by practicing his culture.
There are also other examples that I can qoute as per your request but can not because the debate will get diluted e.g children rights, same sex marriage, individual right v/s community rigth etc…
DA 0 (again)
Malema 1
Mtimande – at the risk of sounding like an arrogant European, I suggest you learn English. “challenged by European nonconformist”, for example, sounds plain absurd and barely worth replying to.
What you’re referring to are incidents in which animal-rights groups objected to ritual slaughter of animals for cultural purposes, correct? Last I checked, these groups were citing not the constitution, but SA’s laws against animal cruelty; these laws are in the power of the ruling party to change, basically anytime they want to.
Care to try again?