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"TO PROrrECT AND SER"VE?" A member of the SAP protec ts a child after rightwingers attacked a passing mini- bus carry ing black passengers during a protest against State President FW de Klerk in Ventersdorp on August 9, 1991. • Photograph by Juhuan Kuus Me~ber of the SAP arrests a protester in Phalaborwa in January t h is year. Photograph The Star Indepel :;dent Board of Inquiry PO Boo: 322QJ ) .""'*"'''''20" """""""'South Alr (;O 0 Pnone (011 1403.J2Nl17 Fa< (011) ~1360 "TO PROTECT liND SERVE ? " I II SPECIAL REPORT ON POLICE INVESTIGATIONS INTO POL I TICALLY MOTIVATED VI OLENCE AND CRIM ES , PREPARED BY TilE I NDE PENDENT BOARD OF INQUIRY. BOARD MEM&RS: Plo r laurie Ackermaron. Of Alex BOfOlf'le . MrsJudv Chalmers. Rev Dr flonk Chikone. Dr Mox Coleman. Mr Blion Currin. Plof John Dugald. Mrs Sheena Doncoo. Mr Pelo. Harris. MI PeI6f KerchtK>lf. Mrs Lydia Kompe, Mrs Emma Moshinini. Br Jude P\elerle. Alchblshop Desmond lulu - i- CONTENTS PREFACE "US " AND " TIIEM " ....... •. ••..• .• • ..•... ... •... ..... 2- 3 J . INTROPUCTION ; ••••••• • •. • ••••• • •• ••• • ••• • • ••• ••••• 4-7 JJ. "TUE \tIM, TO INVESTIGATE; ••.•....••..•..••• . ...•. 8 2.1 The Trust Feeds Ma ssacre ..... ... ...... .. ...... 8-16 2 .2 The Bheki Mlangeni Murder ........•........... 17-21 2.) Train Attacks ....... • ..•.. ... •. ... • .. .. ... 22-28 III. INVEST IGATING MA SSACR ES ; •......•..• • ..•..•.. 29-32 3.1 The Sebokeng Night Vigil Massacre ... ........ ,32-)4 3.2 The Al exandra Night Vigil Massac r e .... .. ... .. 34-37 -u- IV. KH UTSONG " WHER E WE REST "; . ... • ••.•. •• .. .... 38-4 5 V . THE SCHWEIZ ER -RENEKE CAS E; •...•••. • .••........ 46-47 VI.TIlE IIARM S COMMI SSI ON INVESTIGATI ON: .......•... 48- 5 4 VII. RI GHT WIN G VI OLENCE ; .....•.•• • .. • •. •. ..•.... 5 5-58 VIII. CONCLU S IONS ; •.... •• • • •• • ••• •. •... • ... ••... 5 9 -62 FOOTNOTES . ......... • .. • .. • .. • • ..•.. • • . • • .. • . • ... i-i ii ( . -]- " Up to now the police hllve been required to perform two types of functions. The one is to handle typical crime situations ... But you also had other tasks to fulfil, and that was a contro l function connected to a specific politica l party ... You wil l no longer be required to prevent people from gathering to canvass support for their views. This is the political arena and we want to take the police out of it. We don't want to use you any more as instruments to r each certain political goals. We as pol iticians must take full responsibility for politics ... This Is the direction we are taking and 1 want you to make peace with this new line. ""I (Address by St",te President F.W. de l<lerk to 500 police officers at Pretoria Police College, 17 January 1990) -2- PREFACE "US " ANP "TIlE!1" The challenge the South Af ric an Pol ice force faces in the black community is how to c hange from a force o f "occupation" to one involved or involving the community. It is important for the police to realise that blac k South Africans live with the l egacy of the past. The SAl) is not see n as an internal resource but a mechanism of control. *2 Police are not seen as protectors but are i ncrea s ingly feared and seen as the enemy. The police's use of maximum force i s well known. This is used not o nly in c rowd contr o l but a l so i n t he day t o day fight aga inst c rime. Thus, the police are finding it hard to throw off t he ir past image of being the central ins trument in the e nforci ng of apartheid laws and des pite the post- February 1990 ref orll process they still reflect a strong political bias. I t i s against this background that a new police force has to be created and it is against this background that the Independent Board o f I nquiry attempts to playa facilitatory ( ) -3- role in bringing together witnesses a nd victims of politically motivated violence and the investigators - The South African Police . , ) -. - I. INTRODUCTION. "Eve n 1n a democratic society the powers of the police to arrest, detain, search, use legitimate force, monitor and seize are awesome. But in South Africa the controls on the use of police powers within tha law, and the restraints on the abuse of those powers outside the law are weakened by political, legal and institutional factors . The most significant of these is t he absence of political accountability by t he police to the majority of t he population in whose name they perform their duties and who are s ubjected to the due exercise of their powers. For b l ack South Africans the absence of effective c hannels, at national or local level, of influencing policing prioriti es and policies profound ly affects thei r attitude to the police. " *3 It is not the task of t h is report t o look at polici ng per se - there are experts jn this field and one only has t o point to the recent conference hosted by IDASA in October this yea r where different policing ~ethods were put under the microscope . Our brief is to reflect on OUl" o .. n experiences and those of others who on a daily basis corne into contact with the police. (' -5- 1'he report wi l l outl ine various case studies where members of the SA P have come under scrutiny. Perhaps the key feature of the report wil l be the contrast between t he public state~e nt 8 of t he police, particularly t he ir efforts in encouraging witnesses to come forward and the r eality which faces these witnesses whe n they do. Another focus wil l be t he investigation procedures followed by t h e SAP, particularly the critici sms levelled after the Boipatong massacre by po lice expert Dr P Waddingto n. Particular attention wil l be paid to t he confessi on orientated nature of investigation in South Africa. The question of suspension of police officer s is a l so canvassed in the r eport. There seems to be no uniforN approach as some mem ber s of the SAP are s us pended before they are charged, other s after they have been convicted and some who have been suspended as i n t he case of Carletonville are reinstated despite having charges still pe nding. Related to this is the question o f promotion. On several occasions pol icemen involved in serious incidents have been promoted, an exampl e, is convicted Trust Feeds killer Captain Brian Mitchell who despite s uspicions of his invol vement in the massaCre of 11 people, was promoted from l i e utenant to captain. -6- The Boards' main dealings with the SA P stem from its gathe~,i ng of statements from various communities wracked by t he c ur r e nt political violence. Our role in ma ny ways is a faci litatory one. In t hat we are a bridge between the co~munity and the police. Otten witnesses come to us as they are too afraid to approach the .police or as in the case of Boipatong believe that their was direct police i nvolvement in the massacr e . Thus ou r dealings with t he pol ice are on the level of political l y motivated crimes and violence. This is not a new phenomeno n in South Africa. The first assassinations of anti apartheid activists occurred i n t he early nineteen seventies, While mass political violence broke out for the first time in Natal in 198 5 a nd spread to the Reef in July 1990. Since 1985 at least twelve thousand people have lost their lives in political violence. Jlfter virtually every political as/ilII/ils i nation the South Jlfrican Pol ice (SJl P) assure the public that everything possible will be done to find the ~urderers. Similllrly, police constantly i ssue state~ents saying t hat perpotrators of poUtical viol e nce wi l l be trac ked down and brought to book. Yet the number of people convicted for pol i ticlllly Notivated acts of violence remains abysmal ly sma ll. <:) -,- Following the Boipatong massacr e on June 17 1992, an independent team of policemen was appoi nted by Mr. Justice R Go ldstone to make an assesment of the SAP's response to the i ncident and their subsequent investigation thereof. This was the first time that &o~e th i ng o f this n ature had been al lowed to happe n in the history of the SAP. The team was headed by Dr. P h Waddington, the other members being Commander Tom Laidlaw and Detective Superintendent Dav id Don. The report was highly cri tical of t he investigation saying that it was "woefully inadequate i n a number of respects. " *4 However Or Waddingto n ascribed this to "a n absence of s u itable orga nisat iona l structures to facilitate effective po licing. " He added t hat "olllissions arose not fro,. deliberation. but incompetence" .·S What Waddington concludes, is that the SA P have the will to investigate crimes of political vio lence but that they lac k the resources and possibly the training to do so. The SA P' s f ormal response to the report was that they had studied the report with an open mind but they d id not agree with all Waddington's c riticisms. The SAP say i t cannot" simply be accepted t hat the philosophies of policin.g methods li nd techniques which have been proved successful under British or European c irc umstances, wi ll necessari l y provide solutions for the Challenges directed to poliCing i n South Africa".

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