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Police Minister Bheki Cele and National Police Commissioner Khehla Sitole launched an anti-corruption strategy to root out corruption within the police service’s own ranks on Friday morning.
Whether the launch by the South African Police Service (SAPS) was motivated by some form of deep soul searching or by the relentless exposés that have revealed improper conduct within the state organ responsible for preventing, combating and investigating crime, remained unclear.
What was disclosed was the fact that a state organ that is meant to combat crime cannot be seen to be complicit in criminal activity, especially corruption.
“We need to have an organisation with a good moral fibre. A professional police organisation needs to be free of any corruption. If you love your country you will always make sure that there is no corruption. Our national development plan requires police to be professional and present a high level of honesty,” said Sitole.
The national commissioner said the purpose of the anti-corruption strategy was to “encourage the police to do the right thing when nobody is watching”.
Sitole reminded all members of the police service and stakeholders gathered at the Tshwane police academy’s old gym hall that they were bound by the police code of conduct “to serve and protect, and act with integrity”.
“You need to be impartial, courteous, respectful and accountable when performing your duties and serving the public,” Sitole said.
In an unprecedented shift Cele revealed that going forward, “the SAPS ethics committee will include eminent South Africans outside of the police force. It is not [only] going be police looking into police but we will bring others to scrutinise police actions”.
The police minister also added that “there must be a serious consequential management in this organisation [SAPS] at all levels,” and that he was fully behind the idea of “the compilation of a database for corrupt officials”.
Ironically, Cele was himself dismissed as national police chief in June 2012 by then president Jacob Zuma after a commission of inquiry (mandated to establish whether Cele acted corruptly, dishonestly, or with an undeclared conflict of interest in relation to the leasing of two buildings for SAPS from business tycoon Roux Shabangu) found him unfit to hold office.
President Cyril Ramaphosa, however, deemed Cele fit to hold the higher ranking Police Minister’s office to which he was appointed in February this year.
Had his own proposition of the need for the “compilation of a database for corrupt officials” been implemented at the time he was dismissed from the national police commissioner’s office, Cele might not have landed the Police Minister’s position.
Hercules Wasserman, Deputy Director of Investigation: Fraud and Corruption Investigation and Detection, said that with the implementation of the anti-corruption strategy, the mostly reactive approach to corruption within the police service was set to change.
“Vetting needs to be mandatory and a corruption database should be implemented to keep track of accused officials. We need to change the mindset of our colleagues toward an ethical mind set,” said Wasserman.
The implementation of a mandatory vetting process and the official database for corrupt officials might save the SAPS the embarrassment they have faced in the past.
High level appointments of acting crime intelligence head, Major General Pat Mokushane and former Gauteng provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros’ replacement Lt-Gen Bethuel Zuma, had to be rescinded after simple background checks revealed that they both had a criminal record.
City Press reported last year that Mokushane had a prior criminal record and in his new position had allegedly ran his private companies from his office and had an affair with a subordinate officer’s wife.
On a similar note, Zuma’s appointment as Petros’ replacement in 2013 ended in an embarrassing fashion as he had to be removed only hours later after it was discovered that he was facing charges of reckless and negligent driving.
To his defence, he was later found not guilty by a Pietermaritzburg court.
Apart from saving the SAPS a lot of blushes, the new anti-corruption strategy according to Sitole should “enhance and support strategies already in place to deal with corruption within the SAPS and prevent poor, ineffective management of state resources, as well as impairment of quality of service rendered to [the] public due to officials engaging in corruption”.
According to Sitole, the implementation of this strategy was in line with the SAPS’ turn-around strategy, which sought to “transform it into a professional and capable organisation”.
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