Spare a thought for the honest and hardworking police officers who risk their lives in exchanges of gunfire with ruthless extortionists, only for their colleagues to be arrested for crimes they are valiantly trying to eradicate.
The recent arrests of police officers on allegations that they were involved in collecting “protection fees” means that the fight against extortion-related crimes will have to start from within.
This is vital when one considers the risks associated with reporting extortion-related crimes at police stations. A case in point is Western High Court Judge Daniel Thulare’s scathing judgment on the links between police officers and extortion gangs.
“There were members of the police who he (state witness) knew as close to the Guptas (extortion gang), who asked him why he was at the police station and also told him that he liked being at the police station. Mr X (state witness) was hounded even when he was in police protection. He had to be rerouted when the destination to a safe place became known to the Gupta gang, of which the accused were members. The gang worked with some police officers and had an established network in their rule by the bullet through gangsterism, forceful demand for ‘protection fees’ and extortion.”
This week, police in the Western Cape arrested seven officers attached to public order policing for allegedly collecting “protection fees” from Chinese shop owners.
An eighth officer, who was also attached to the Public Order Police Unit was later arrested while detectives took three civilians, one man who is a former police officer and two women in for questioning relating to the same incident.
Similar cases have been reported elsewhere, including in KwaZulu-Natal last month where about seven officers were arrested over allegations they attempted to extort R100 000 from a Phoenix businessman.
While it’s important to treat these officers as innocent until proven otherwise, the mere allegations against them erode the good progress that has been made in fighting extortion.
It makes the public more sceptical about reporting these crimes to the police. No wonder there is a low reportage of extortion-related crimes across the country.
However, we should be careful in viewing all officers as being on the wrong side of the law. If anything we should unite behind the good cops who are brave enough to put their colleagues behind bars.
Cape Times