 “South Africa risks gaining a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world if we do not nip the scourge in the bud. In the midst of abject poverty and hunger, greed and the speedy accumulation of wealth have become the most defining characteristics of South Africa's post-apartheid democracy.” -- Sunday Times Editorial, Nov 22, 2009 [» » Getting Away with Murder & Rape: RSA Wins Gold in Rapes & Silver in Murder at Crime Olympics » » SA's reputation in Europe is Cratering] |
“Corruption in the public service is so rife, so endemic, so all-pervasive, that ordinary South Africans regard it as the normal way of doing things. In the municipalities, virtually no tender is awarded without some politician’s or official’s relative, friend or business associate being in on the game. If they are not, a bribe is paid. In queues for government services, even when dealing with the police, bribes change hands as a matter of course.”
“That culture starts at the top and permeates the whole system. Morality, values, have all disappeared. It is everyone for himself. That is why ministers believe they have a “right” to put extras in their official cars, such as television sets. It is the culture.”
“This is how the failed states of Nigeria, the DR Congo and others were born. The culture of bribery, lack of service delivery and impunity of public officials took hold. That is where we are headed unless something is done — soon.”
-- -- Justice Malala, Black Politicians Fiddle as SA Burns
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Police in crime conspiracy
Dec 12, 2009 11:09 PM | Shanaaz Eggington | Sunday Times
Investigation into fudging of crime statistics reveal how police downgraded serious offences
A probe into the manipulation of crime statistics is gathering momentum as new details emerge of how police with evidence of serious crimes, such as child rape, failed to open dockets.
Police stations in two provinces stand accused of destroying dockets and downgrading the seriousness of reported crimes, in a conspiracy to make it look as if there was less crime in their areas.
This week it emerged that:
- Police failed to open a docket into the alleged rape of five primary school pupils by one man in a single day, despite medical and other evidence;
- The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), a police watchdog body probing the crime statistics scandal, now wants to scrutinise over 1000 more dockets in the Western Cape;
- Western Cape community safety MEC Lennit Max called on the ICD to make public the preliminary results of their probe into 103 dockets in the province.
Four police officers, including Pietermaritzburg's Mountain Rise police station commissioner, Harriram Badul, were arrested after a probe into the alleged destruction of dockets.
They were arrested on 51 counts of fraud and corruption and the case has been handed to the Hawks.
The Sunday Times this week established that police in Paarl, in the Western Cape, failed to open a docket after being handed doctor's certificates confirming injuries consistent with the rape of five primary school pupils. Neither did they arrest the suspect, pointed out by the victims - four girls and one boy aged 6 to 12 - earlier this year. Instead, they opened an inquiry, which, unlike a docket, is not counted among crime statistics. The suspect was only arrested in June after a special task team of about 25 members of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS) from Cape Town were sent to Paarl to track down and arrest suspects linked to over 100 cases registered as inquiries in the area.
The team swooped after Max asked the ICD to probe claims that crime figures were being manipulated in the province.
The team of detectives were handed over 100 dockets - all opened the day before they arrived in Paarl - and told to "immediately arrest all the suspects identified and pointed out" by their victims.
They arrested up to 30 suspects that day.
The ICD has now asked police to hand over 1000 dockets from the Boland cluster of police stations, which include Paarl, Paarl East, Mbekweni, Malmesbury, Riebeeck-Wes and Philadelphia. The provincial head of the police's legal services has written to the ICD, asking for the investigation to be "expedited and completed".
Max has also written to the ICD asking for their preliminary findings, based on an evaluation of 103 dockets from the Paarl area, to be made public.
"The ICD must first positively link somebody to any wrongdoing before any action is taken. I hope, however, that if there was any, the police will act consistently, as they did in the Lansdowne case."
The former station commissioner at Lansdowne police station in Cape Town, Senior Superintendent Charlene Chandler, became the first police officer in the country to be fired for fiddling with crime figures.
The SAPS fired her in October for defeating the ends of justice after an internal probe.
ICD spokesman Moses Dlamini this week confirmed there had been a request for more police dockets for the watchdog to examine. "We are waiting for SAPS to make them available," he said.
Director Novela Potelwa, spokesman for provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros, said: "We eagerly await the finalisation of the ICD investigation, which has been going on since June 2009. Unfortunately we cannot comment on any of the Paarl cases as they form part of the ICD investigation."
The Sunday Times spoke to the family of a 10-year-old girl who, with four other pupils, was lured to a house in Paarl and allegedly raped by a man earlier this year.
Her aunt, who cannot be named in order to protect the child's identity, said: "He told them he had food for them at home. While they were eating, he took them one by one to the room and (allegedly) raped them. One boy was sodomised and said he saw a lot of condoms on the bedroom floor."
Police were summoned by the school principal and the children taken to a hospital, where a doctor confirmed that they had injuries consistent with those of rape.
» » » » [Sunday Times]
Zuma's first step to fight corruption
Nov 22, 2009 12:00 AM | Sunday Times Editorial |(Emphasis Added)
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The establishment of an interministerial committee this week to formulate new strategies on how the government can effectively deal with the rampant scourge of corruption is in many ways a tacit admission by President Jacob Zuma that the pilfering of state coffers has spiralled out of control.
It is significant that such a committee was appointed when the country is still reeling from shock at the Special Investigating Unit's correctional services corruption report tabled in parliament this week.
The report revealed how prison tenders worth more than R1-billion were characterised by kickbacks and bribes channelled to senior public servants, their families and associates by the equally iniquitous service providers.
The ministerial committee's formation comes at a time when the ink has hardly dried on the auditor-general's report that revealed how corrupt civil servants and their families benefited from government tenders worth more than R600-million.
This week, human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale added salt to the wound when he revealed how his department was compelled to rebuild 40000 defective low-cost RDP houses built by greedy contractors, some of whom have become instant millionaires.
It is matter of public record that many politically connected crooks who have swindled the state - from the corrupt Land Bank deals to milking school feeding schemes - are walking the streets as free men because corruption appears not to be punished in this country.
South Africa risks gaining a reputation as one of the most corrupt countries in the world if we do not nip the scourge in the bud. In the midst of abject poverty and hunger, greed and the speedy accumulation of wealth have become the most defining characteristics of South Africa's post-apartheid democracy.
Public office, in particular, is seen as a stepping stone to instant riches by many officials elected to office. Politicians and civil servants use their new-found status to line their own pockets and those of their associates through illicit and ill-gotten tenders.
We want to believe that by appointing the anti-corruption ministerial committee, Zuma has recognised that corruption has become the real threat to the future of South Africa's democracy.
Whatever recommendations this committee comes up with, it must ensure that it proposes measures that will make it difficult for venal politicians and civil servants to loot any further.
Corruption has burgeoned because culprits get away with it. Zuma needs to set an example by adding substance to the anti-corruption rhetoric. It would send a message of confidence to the citizens of our country and, indeed, the rest of the world if our president ensures that all government officials and their cronies, however politically connected, found guilty of pilfering, are rooted out and face the full force of the law.
» » » » [Sunday Times]
Jacob Zuma's £5.3m home expansion prompts outcry
South African president's plans include helicopter pad, parking for 40 vehicles, and houses for three wives
Friday 4 December 2009 14.10 GMT | David Smith | Mail & Guardian.UK
 South African president Jacob Zuma with his three wives, Sizakele Khumalo, right, Nompumelo Ntuli, far left, and Thobeka Mabhija, second from left. Photograph: Mike Hutchings/AFP/Getty Images |
Jacob Zuma, the president of South Africa, has prompted anger with a reported R65m (£5.3m) expansion of his personal residence in one of the country's poorest regions.
Zuma's rural homestead will gain a police station, helipad, military clinic, visitors' centre, parking lot for 40 vehicles and three houses, according to South Africa's Mail & Guardian newspaper, which claimed taxpayers would foot "the largest chunk of the bill".
New houses are apparently being built to accommodate Zuma's three wives, the paper said. Critics accused the president of "conspicuous consumption in the face of dire poverty".
The rural family homestead is in Nkandla, in KwaZulu-Natal province, where many of Zuma's neighbours lack electricity or running water. Official figures show that more than half of KwaZulu-Natal's 10 million population live in poverty, with 1.2 million surviving on less than R200 (£16) a month. Sources told the paper that the expansion will cost an estimated R65m.
Polygamy is common in rural KwaZulu and Zuma is no exception. His residence has a house for his first wife, Sizakele Khumalo. More are reportedly being built to accommodate his other wives, Nompumelelo Ntuli and Thobeka Mabhija. The houses will have thatched roofs and contain his-and-hers bathrooms, walk-in closets and a study. One will contain four bedrooms; the smaller will have three.
The costly transformation was criticised as insensitive a day after Zuma warned that more jobs could be lost because of a recession that has put nearly a million out of work. William Gumede, a political author, said: "A massive house in South Africa costs R10m, so why spend R65m? … It's conspicuous consumption in the face of dire poverty."
The South African presidency said no government funding would be used for Zuma's household, but the state would be responsible for the adjacent developments. "We … reject any insinuation that there could be any untoward abuse of state resources by the president or his family," it said.
Zuma's R65m Nkandla splurge
Mandy Rossouw | Mail & Guardian, RSA |
Dec 04 2009 07:17
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President Jacob Zuma is expanding his remote family homestead at Nkandla in rural KwaZulu-Natal for a whopping price of R65-million -- and the taxpayer is footing the largest chunk of the bill.
The expansion will turn the presidential homestead into a sprawling precinct that will include a police station, helicopter pad, military clinic, visitors’ centre, parking lot with parking for at least 40 vehicles and at least three smaller houses that will serve as staff quarters.
See video footage of the development
» » » » [Mail & Guardian]
Selected Mail & Guardian Comments:F*ck me. The joke really is ON US!
-- Marius de Kock on December 4, 2009, 7:31 am
I don't know about you, but I am becoming increasingly upset with the way this country’s finances are being treated as a bottomless money pit. There seems to be an attitude on the part of government and many provincial and municipal officials that the country's, provincial and some cities’ coffers can be milked ad infinitum for just about anything under the sun – from stays in luxury hotels to luxury cars with luxury sound systems to flying all over the world on ‘fact-finding’ trips, to buying aircraft that are patently unsuited to the alleged purpose for which they were bought… the list seems endless. Somewhere along the line, taxpayers (there are only about 5 million out of whole population who are taxpayers) are going to become so sick and tired of seeing their taxes being squandered they are going to rebel and we’ll have a tax revolt.
-- Rod Baker on December 4, 2009, 7:38 am
Unbelievable!! But the STUPID starving masses will keep voting these squandering morons into power. If that's what they want let them bloody starve!!!
-- Mark Nicholas on December 4, 2009, 7:49 am
» » » » [Sunday Times :: Sunday Times :: Guardian.UK :: Mail & Guardian.ZA]
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