40.13

Host

Good Evening and welcome to Special Assignment. I am Nadia Levine standing in for Max du Prez. On tonight's programme we bring you an exclusive report on a community's violent response to rampant crime. Early one morning in April this year, a kangaroo court  in the township of Gugulethu, Near Cape Town, apprehended, tried, convicted and sentenced five youths for allegedly raping a young woman. Special Assignment reporter Andri Kotze and cameraman Mzwandile Njokwana witnessed these vicious punishments, meted out to these underage suspects. We also look at the perceived incompetence of the police in curbing the escalating crime wave and efforts to establish a human rights culture amongst policemen. This comes in the wake of the BBC report on police torture and brutality. We would like to warn sensitive viewers that this report might contain disturbing scenes of violence and strong language.

41.03 Film starts

41.10

Early in April this year a seventeen year old girl was raped in Gugulethu by ten teenagers. She reported the crime at the local police station. She knew who the rapists were and where they lived but only two of then were arrested and charged...the others remained free in the community.

41.50

And, while the local police were removing drugs from shebeens and doing local patrols, the girl decided to take the law into her own hands.....afraid that justice would not be done. She went to the local taxi organisation for help.

42.13 TITLE

A film by Adri Kotze

42.20

Eyona taxi rank

Thursday 10.30 a.m.

42.26

In Gugulethu, the local taxi association has become the law. People from the local community have lost faith in the police and they all come to the taxi rank to lay complaints and to seek justice...justice which they did not find in the charge office of Gugulethu police station. Among the complainants is the young rape victim. She tells the taxi men how she was raped at gun point, some of the alleged rapists live in the same street as her.

43.00  Taxi Official

Exactly what do you want us to do?

43.04 Rape Victim

I need help.

43.05 Taxi Official

What kind of help?

43.07 Rape Victim

Catch those who haven't been arrested

43.10 Taxi Official

What should we do with them?

43.11  Rape Victim

Beat them

43.14 Taxi Official

So you will only be satisfied and stop crying once we've beaten them?

43.24  Rape Victim

Yes

43.26

There have been several similar cases that the taxi men have settled in their own manner

43.35  Taxi Official

John Mdayi  Chairman Eyona Taxi Association

When the government lets them out today,  you won't get them back again. Is that what we want? No! Because every time they give them bail they do the same thing again.

The government don't know what they are doing, they know nothing. They do nothing to make these young men right. We are better than the government

The government is full of democrats...with democracy everything is weak...that is why the crime just goes up and up.

44.20

Friday 04.10a.m.

44.25

Under the cover of darkness, the unsuspecting youths are rounded up one by one. The young girl points them out to the judges.....five of the ten suspects are tracked down.. They show no resistance against the brute force of the taxi board...trial, conviction and punishment takes place at taxi H.Q.

44.57

The rape victim draws the first blood.

45.03

Nicholas Sondo  Eyona Taxi Association

If it was my sister ...I don't care about anything else....if it was my sister I would shoot him...DEAD!

45.45  Nicholas Sondo

We don't rest here...everyday people come in here for help...the police are not working for them, they are not doing their job, so people come here for help.

46.16

Inspector Charles Kakudi  Gugulethu Police Station

The problem of the police compared to the taxi organisations is that the police cannot just assault and do anything. If people go to there  they get their properties, they get every back which they have lost, for the complainant. The police may do the same but the police have a long process, according to the constitution, that is the problem because they lose that trust. They believe that at the taxi organisation it is done immediately.

46.46

These pictures were filmed in the darkest days of apartheid. Here the notorious 'Flying Squad' police arrest, harass and intimidate anyone who fails to produce their I.D. documents.

46.59

A callous disrespect for human rights was embedded in the South African police force over decades of apartheid. Many feel this culture lingers on.

47.12

This young Sowetan was shot in the head by police as he drove a stolen car. This incident happened after Nelson Mandela had renounced violence and police regulations at the time required them to shoot at the tyres unless the suspect draws a gun. But this man was unarmed. His pleas for water met with sarcasm and indifference.

47.38

Victim

'Bring me water... bring me water...please'

Police

'Hey... hey... where do you expect me to get water from?'

Victim

'There's a pump over there, please.'

47.53

In a separate incident, in the back of a pick-up, a badly injured man lies bleeding. The flying squad patrol found the vehicle on the other side of Soweto. No-one called an ambulance, no-one offered any help. No-one wanted to get their hands dirty. They hand-cuffed the man where he lay and towed the pick-up through a chilly winter's night. Now they deride the injured man.

48.20

Police

Lie still man you're dead.

48.25

Welcome to heaven.

48.30

Such acts of gross abuse continue today. Occasionally, the culprits are suspended.

48.38

HUMAN RIGHTS AND POLICING

Human Rights workshop for police, Middleburg, Mpumalanga

48.46.

But how can such abuses still go on in the new police service?

Since the adoption of the constitution and the bill of rights, the emphasis has been on human rights policing. Now every policeman has to attend a human rights workshop to change the way police operated and thought for decades.

49.09

Policeman

Way back we used to torture a guy and tell him "Look you're going to doing something or such and such will happen to you" It was very wrong and now in the new South Africa and with the constitution, this can no longer happen.

49.31

Tony Yengeni, ANC MP  Former police detainee

Narrator

The past history of violence still haunts many South Africans.

49. 42

Tony Yengeni

The torture method works on your mind, works on your brain.....especially the "wet back system"..that was used on me...it is a very terrible system....you become aware that you are dying, slowly, whilst you are alive.

50.00

Ruben Richards

Executive Director : Police Practice, Technikon, South Africa.

The Truth and Reconciliation committee made a finding, the finding says that the South African Police Services, the then South African Police Force, is the major perpetrator of human rights violations.

50.15

Jan Munnik Former police reporting officer: Witwatersrand

I am convinced of the fact. The commanding officers at all units not only knew about it but they encouraged it and they certainly closed their eyes to it.

50.32

Azhar Cachalia

Secretary : Safety and Security

It was the previous government's policy to disregard its own laws. They would turn the eye the other way, they knew that killings were happening, they knew that torture was going on.

50.47

Jan Munnik

The most important reason was that there was a lack of training. In other words, policeman were never really taught to do proper detective work and to do proper interrogation and to obtain the evidence they needed by other means. So, essentially what they did is to use a short cut.

51.07

Sydney Mufamadi

Minister of Safety and Security

There were transgressions in the past...there was no transparency then. So the extent of transgressions could not be determined.

51.24

Katlehong police station East Rand

51.34

Katlehong was torn apart by political violence in the run up to the 1st democratic elections. Now it is under siege from violent criminal enemies. Due to the bitter attacks and killings, the policeman patrol the streets in convoy. But the run-down police station can hardly cope with day to day duties ...its holding cells bear testimony to the serious constraints under which they operate.

52.16

Approximately, 500 policeman have to serve a community of over one and half million people. In fact, for the people of this informal settlement , a policeman is a rare sight.

52.29

Sr. Supt. Simon Mokhale Station Commander Katlehong

There is now the perception amongst the community that the police are really ineffective and the community feels unprotected.

52.47

Simon Mokhale

The problem with our police sometimes is that there is a trauma, because the killing of our policeman in this area, we have lost a number of policeman who have been killed and so on. Now this really effects the police as far as the execution of their duties because now they fear for their lives.

When a policeman or woman leaves his or her place to report for duty, he is asking him or herself whether he will be alive when he reports off duty or whether he will be dead.

53.32

Night Patrol Katlehong

53.48

Ruben Richards

The life of a police offical in this country is cheap. That's the general feeling or attitude out there.

53.57

Azhar Cachalia

I think its actually quite a novel job, to come in, to basically face fire arms from ruthless people.

54.09

Tony Yengeni

There are many men and women police officers in this Western Cape murdered by drive-by shootings and faceless criminals. That is going to elicit a response from the police and the courts and sometimes an over reaction.

54.35

Mitchellsplein, Cape Falls

Funeral of slain gang land leader, Glen Kahn.

54.46

In the Western cape, the police face a unique and complicated set of problems. Scenes like these are common place...this is gangland...where justice is often meted out by drive-by shootings and revenge is bound to follow.

55.21

But not only do the police have to contend with this dilemma, urban terrorism and taxi violence compound the problems. Most under fire are the police officials.

55.34

Rashied Staggie  Former gang leader

Don't you find it strange that it's the government, who says it is looking for the so-called Five, here is one of the Five, praise God here I am, the government said the fifth person was in Mitchellsplein. What did you think? I think it was Glen Kahn. So I say the government killed Glen.

56.13

Voice of past. Alvin Martins

People in high positions are killing us. Rashied was right. Police officials are killing us. Coloured people no longer have rights. There are not only coloured gangs and coloured smugglers.

56.28

Azhar Cachalia

Secretary : Safety and Security

Recently,  I think in the Western Cape given the enormous pressure that the police are under to solve certain crimes, that we heard cases of an increased number of assaults.

56.44

Ruben Richards

The pressures that our police are under...the kind of constitutional constraints that our police experience at the moment...the lack of resources. All of these put together are conditions that make it conducive to utilise these unorthodox, unconstitutional, non-human rights methods.

57.24

Police Foot Patrol: KTC Squatter Camp, Nyanga

Many police officials at the fore-front of violent crime feel that their hands have been cut off by the bill of rights. They demand a return to strong-arm, apartheid style methods to fight hardened criminals.This  demand is supported by many South Africans who have been victims of crime.

57.44

Capt Neville Malila

An operation that would have been done six years ago, we know that at that time there was no human rights ...the police would have just gone in without knocking or producing any warrants...no search warrants or asking the people and they would have just stared searching the people ..things would have been one-sided entirely...but it is all different now.

58.06

Jan Munnik  Former police reporting officer, Witwatersrand

I have had commanders of units turning around to me and saying, well how do you expect us to do our investigations now we have the constitution. The constitution is taking away the rights of policemen.

58.17

Alvin Martins

Let us pray that apartheid comes back. If a big policeman slapped you then, you always respected him.

58.24

Jan Munnik

I empathise with that completely, they are very frustrated. Particularly when the police are dealing with a clever criminal who they firmly believe has committed the crime...they may have limited evidence and the person is not willing to cooperate or is being difficult, it is very tempting to then assault that person or to give him a few slaps.

58.47

Ruben Richards

We are in a context yes, where there is a perception that criminals have more rights than the police officials, that criminals have more rights than the community.

58.58

Capt Neville Malila

 Yes, sometimes people do definitely feel that we go soft on criminals and they want us to be harder but in a human rights culture we can't do that.

59.07

Azhar Cachalia

There are going to be cases where they arrest a notorious criminal as they have done recently with people such as Colin Chauke and earlier Fingers (Rabadape?)...so the police are popular when they effect those arrests. Now of course there are many people who think that they should not only be arrested but they should be beaten up as well.

59.34

Jan Munnik

So certainly I think there is definitely a feeling of dis-empowerment amongst policeman, that they can't do their job properly...and for that they blame the constitution.

59.45

This is a sight that instilled fear in the heart of many a South African a few years ago...now it hardly raises an eye-brow.. On patrol in Crossroads township and not every policeman resents the change.

Inspector Gregory White has been in the police for twelve years. He welcomes the response he now gets as a member of the public order unit.

00.15

Gregory White

There are big changes but the people respond openly and they react more to you..there's a very big difference and you can ask anybody, anyone outside and they will talk to you. In the past it never happened.  In the past there was very little respect and its a good thing that has changed.

01.05

Azhar Cachalia

I think there is an understanding at the moment that if police people and other security agents act outside of the law that they are likely to be punished.

01.19

Ruben Richards

We have the bill of rights in one hand, the constitution and we have  a loaded gun in the other. Now that might be perceived to be controversial but I refuse to believe that the police officials are dis-empowered by the constitution.

01.37

Jan Munnik

The point is that one cannot abuse other people and one cannot abuse  human rights .....it doesn't serve any purpose. And at the end of the day it might lead to that person being acquitted not convicted..those methods don't work.

01.55

Ruben Richards

If you look at the number of court cases or matters that have been thrown out of court because of shoddy police work...one has to unpack that and say does that have to do with human rights or is it just incompetence of police work or court officials. People too easily blame the police and the police feel too easily dis-empowered because they might have been outsmarted by the lawyers of criminals.

2.41

Sydney Mufamadi  Minister of Safety and Security

Well, the police in our country have got powers to arrest, powers to take suspects to court. These are powers that police everywhere else in the world have ...so there are no powers that police in other countries have that police in our country do not have.

3.08

Tony Yengen, ANC MP Former police detainee

If at the end of the day, it is discovered that the constitution constrains the police in their job of cutting down criminals and terrorism....if it is clear that the laws are not enough, after thorough scrutiny, then I believe there will be a case for us to either improve or change the laws or if needs be change the prosecution.

4.00

But for the community of Gugulethu, the academic debate apparently hardly matters, they deal with criminals in their own way.  An alleged rapist was driven from this house two years ago and no-one has been allowed to stay here ever since.

04.29

Unless some strong measures are taken to allow the police to earn the trust and respect of the community this might become the accepted norm.

5.04 ENDS

An SABC Production