Corrupt cops take centre stage

2008-09-04 20:13

Cape Town - Corruption within the SA Police Service, abuse of power by members of the country's crime-fighting units and political interference took centre stage on Thursday during MPs' deliberations on legislation to disband the Scorpions.

Appearing before the National Assembly's justice and safety and security committees deliberating on the two bills dealing with the Scorpions, Special Investigating Unit (SIU) head Willie Hofmeyr said it was important for the measure to also deal with corruption within the country's investigative units.

"Looking at corruption within the new unit is going to be vital as well - we should consider in the law whether there should not be provisions for enhanced integrity measures.

"As soon as you start dealing with very rich criminals the risk of corruption is significantly increased," he said.

Lowly-paid investigators found it difficult to turn down multi-million rands offers to bungle investigations.

SAPS legal representative Philip Jacobs admitted that corruption within the police, particularly investigative units, was a major problem.

In 2002 the SAPS' Anti -Corruption Unit investigating corruption amongst police officers had to be shut down after widespread corruption was uncovered within the unit itself.

"One of the biggest problems was police corruption within the organised crime context," he said.

Committee chair Yunis Carrim said it was also important for MPs to come up with ideas on how the measure could be crafted in such a way that it made it difficult for politicians to exploit the units for their own political agenda.

This was especially important given that the Scorpions had been accused of being used to fight political wars.

However, Freedom Front Plus MP Pieter Groenewald suggested that Carrim was asking the committee to do the impossible, as the ruling party had total control of all state apparatus, including the police, and was therefore inclined to use them for political purposes.

- SAPA