Cele blames high crime rate on bail, parole

Category: Business News

Date Added: 10 March 2010

WYNDHAM HARTLEY

Parliamentary Editor

CAPE TOWN — Controversial national police commissioner Bheki Cele yesterday sharply criticised other elements of the criminal justice system — notably those granting bail and parole — for making already dangerous police work even more so.

Cele was questioned by MPs in Parliament’s police committee over the lowering of the government’s crime reduction targets.

The Cabinet had set a target of reducing crime by 7%-10%. That goal has been lowered to reducing crime by 4%-7%. Cele said the changed target was due to elements in the system that were outside of police control.

The police’s track record has been criticised repeatedly and Cele’s defence aimed to apportion some of the blame to other parts of the criminal justice system.

He also seemed to indicate a relaxation of the policy of releasing crime statistics only once a year, in the annual report, when he said: “We need to tell the people what is happening; we need to allow South Africans to know.”

Supporting his argument about the need for more efficient management of bail and parole, Cele said that police had arrested a member of the infamous Rolex Gang three times under extremely dangerous conditions, only to see the person get bail repeatedly.

He said those whom the police were chasing were often released. He also cited the case of a suspect in a cash-in-transit heist who had been arrested four times and each time was released on bail.

In another incident, a gang member in Cape Town had been sentenced to 36 years in prison but was out on bail pending the resolution of his appeal.

Cele said bail and parole needed to be managed better because “we are getting more flak on this than we deserve”.

Perhaps the most famous case that illustrates the phenomenon Cele mentioned is that of Alix Carmichele, who was attacked by a man with previous convictions for assault and indecent assault but who was out on bail after being charged with the rape of a 16-year old. The attack left her with a fractured skull, broken arm and deep knife wounds. It took her seven years to win damages from the state for failing to protect her by releasing the man.

Cele also issued a blistering attack on the State Information Technology Agency (Sita), which

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he said was “a big problem for us”. He is not the first to do so. The Department of Home Affairs has blamed Sita for the delays in its smart ID card project.

Cele told MPs he would not give any money to Sita. He said the agency had tried to sell the police outdated technology at prices far more than those charged by the private sector.

Cele also wanted to know why Sita charged a 9% administration fee when it was not keeping pace with technology. He said many government departments were refusing to use Sita for their IT needs.

He also questioned those who said SA’s crime rate was the worst in the world. “I don’t know where they come from with this.”

He said 188 countries belonged to Interpol but many of them in similar positions to SA simply did not supply their crime statistics to the international policing body. He agreed that South African crime was intensely brutal, but said a case for it being the worst in the world could not be made.

Meanwhile, after the meeting, Democratic Alliance MP Dianne Kohler Barnard said the police’s divisional commissioner of legal services, Lindiwe Mtimkulu, had been suspended and charged with violating police regulations. With Sapa

hartleyw@bdfm.co.za

Source: Business Day