Selebi 'infected the police'

The dishonesty of former national police chief Jackie Selebi had "filtered down" through the ranks, leading to demoralisation in the police service.

Testifying yesterday at the Khayelitsha commission of inquiry into policing in the Cape Town township, forensic scientist David Klatzow said that under-manning, inadequacy of skills and insufficient security at government forensic laboratories adversely affected crime investigation.

"I have personally seen the scene of crime irrevocably damaged by untrained police officers allowing bystanders onto the scene, not sealing off the scene and, possibly the most damaging, police officers themselves moving onto the scene and damaging trace evidence, handling potentially vital pieces of evidence and displaying a lack of forensic awareness that is quite deplorable," said Klatzow.

"In general, the police have been plagued by poor leadership, including [Jackie] Selebi, [Bheki] Cele and the inexperienced and lacklustre [national] commissioner [Riah] Phiyega. The dishonesty of Selebi has filtered down to cause demoralisation right through the ranks."

Also testifying yesterday was the former chief crime analyst of the police, Chris de Kock. He told the commission that there was a lack of intelligence gathering by officers stationed in Khayelitsha.

De Kock said there had been a 7% increase in murder cases in Khayelitsha between the 2011-2012 and 2012-2013 financial years.

After examining murder dockets at the Lingelethu-West, Harare and Khayelitsha police stations he concluded that crime prevention in the township was left to chance.

"The policing in the three stations that form greater Khayelitsha is policing by chance and luck, and is clearly not intelligence-led policing, which SAPS claims is its doctrine," said De Kock.

"There have been quite significant increases in a few fear-generating, more-policeable crime trends in greater Khayelitsha during the past two to three years. These are aggravated robbery, common robbery, residential housebreaking, murders and attempted murders, which are often the result of aggravated robbery and reaction to it in terms of vigilantism."

The commission of inquiry, headed by former Constitutional Court justice Kate O'Regan and former national director of public prosecutions Vusi Pikoli, is investigating allegations of incompetent policing made by the Social Justice Coalition.

According to the complaints, poor policing has resulted in a breakdown in relations between the community and the police, which has led to vigilante killings.