SAPS’ stakeholders’ meeting raises serious concerns
Concerns about the handling of assault and domestic violence cases by SAPS were raised in the meeting.
The Brakpan SAPS held their monthly stakeholders’ meeting at Thabong Wedding and Conference Centre on September 27.
While the turnout was low and the meeting was delayed, the proceedings were swift and efficient.
Colonel Eugene Scheepers, the head of detectives at the Brakpan SAPS, answered questions about crime intelligence.
Afriforum’s Gerhard Cilliers ran the proceedings. The Brakpan SAPS’ Lieutenant-Colonel Peet van der Schyff gave the crime overview.
In the past month, compared to the previous year at this time, the following crime increases were noted:
• Common assault and domestic violence continue to increase.
• Business, house and aggravated robberies also increased and occurred mostly between 18:00 and midnight.
• Rape and hijackings have increased.
• Theft out of motor vehicles saw a staggering 140% increase, and most cases occurred between noon and 18:00.
• General theft also increased, as did house burglaries, often occurring on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays between 06:00 and noon.
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“Some good arrests were made this month, especially related to business robberies. Stop-and-search is working. We have had quite a few arrests for suspicion of possession of stolen property,” said Scheepers.
“A major contributor to the successful arrests of criminals are citizen’s arrests by various patrolling groups and stakeholders.”
He said the issue of mining trucks that drive on unsupported roads and damage them was raised.
“It is alleged that when reports are made to the EMPD, the truck drivers somehow find out who made the report and purposefully drive on the person’s residential road as retribution.
“With the two nearest dumpsites closed to the public, there is also a concern of an upcoming increase in illegal dumping.
“Residents are urged to document cases of illegal dumping with photographic evidence and report it to the EMPD.”
On September 13, an operation at an illegal mining hotspot saw equipment seized and 17 arrests made.
SDS Security clarified that they could not identify stolen infrastructure as a subsidiary of Ekurhuleni and that a metro technician had to come out and identify the items. The technician’s contact number is now with the SAPS and EMPD for direct contact.
The police raised concerns about the drastic increase in theft from motor vehicle reports. The SAPS suspected that most of these cases were false reports to commit insurance fraud.
The SAPS warned the public that arrangements are underway with businesses to access their security footage to confirm these reports. If the SAPS determine from the footage that someone made a false report, they will be arrested for perjury and charged with insurance fraud.
Several other concerns were raised, but notable was the concern about the maladministration of J88 forms in domestic violence and assault cases.
The meeting heard how victims of assault or domestic violence went to the police to file a report, only to be told they could not open a case docket without a completed J88 form from a state medical provider.
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However, when they arrived at the state medical provider, they were told they could not file a J88 without a case docket number.
Those in attendance argued the point for several minutes, with the SAPS complaining they did not want to open assault case dockets without a completed J88 because of a high rate of case withdrawals, which negatively affected their conviction rate.
By the end of the meeting, there were no resolutions to the J88 form issue or case withdrawals.
These issues spell a dangerous trend in SA. With a gender-based violence pandemic, victims have to jump through many hoops to report a case of assault successfully. This discourages many victims from making or following through with a report.
It was also noted, much to the horror of the SAPS members present, that a victim trying to make a case recently was threatened by a member of SAPS that they would call her husband to come in and report her for assault.
The SAPS and stakeholders are to engage on the matter and design educational programmes for members and hospitals that will allow them to manage domestic violence and assault cases better.
