Police leadership worried over escalating legal costs on negligent officers
The command and control, upholding of the Constitutional principles and respect of human rights by police officers must and will be intensified at all police stations; and senior management of police must immediately begin to tighten these enforcements to curb lawlessness amongst officers. This is a stern instruction given by the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa in relation to the ongoing lawsuits that are brought against lawless police officers, which cost the State exorbitant amounts.
"A total amount of R 106, 239, 616.81 was paid in legal costs as a result of 8 074 civil claims brought against the SAPS for the 2010/11 financial year. Payment of legal costs is not linked to a particular police station but if an officer is sued for whatever act of misconduct, it is the State that suffers financially and we cannot allow such things to become norm," he stated. The Minister believes with stricter monitoring of police members' conduct, there could be lesser lawsuits if not any, against them. He emphasised that instead of paying legal costs, such amounts could be better utilised in other crucial programmes of the SAPS, including the building of new police stations in areas where they had been previously neglected.
"South Africa is moving in a new direction as far as policing is concerned. Our new approach intends to prepare police officers for a return to discipline and professionalism in the fight against crime. As can be expected, there have been unfortunate deaths, wrongful arrests, torturing and other negative actions as a result of police action which we have had to process and investigate. To this end, we are strengthening the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) in order to give effect to investigating any abuses by police officers in the course of their duty," he stated. Legal costs are paid to the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development for legal services provided by the State Attorney to SAPS in respect of, for example, civil claims against and by the state, motions and matters relating to criminal cases. The amount involved also include court orders in favour of plaintffs and applicants for payment of legal costs.
"We developed and finalised new legislation that will arm the institution with more powers to investigate so that we can reduce the numbers of complaints against the police. Whilst we have formal structures such as the ICD and Police Civilian Secretariat that perform the oversight roles, we are also tasking the SAPS management to play their part. We are serious about this and it must therefore form part of their key performance areas."
He concluded by warning that police officers who continuously abuse their authority have no place within the SAPS. "We have been forthright that police must carry out their mandate of fighting crime, within the framework of the law. We want to come to a point where each and every police officer respects every letter of the Constitution, that they carry their mandate without compromise, which is to fight crime."
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Fight crime within the law or face punishment - Minister Mthethwa warns Police
