#Letter: We have reason to be cynical

Zimbali resident Claudio Ferri writes:

I refer to the article in the Courier dated March 3, in which 23-year-old Wendy Dube from Thembeni was forced to go into hiding following her savage beating and that of her four-year-old son.

Apparently Ms Dube had reported the attack to the police, identified the suspect – who, it appears, had previously raped her – but who was never arrested or questioned by the police.
So he remains a free man.

Along similar lines, top leaders in the ANC, and Fikile Mbalula in particular, have been critical of former Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter for making accusations of high level corruption at Eskom that reached the top echelons of the ANC government.

De Ruyter stands accused of not following this up with evidence. The problem is glaringly obvious!

In both cases outlined above, evidence is presented to the police who then blatantly show little interest. If and when they see fit to follow up in their investigations, they are either ill equipped, poorly trained and in many cases incapable of even writing up a statement.

When De Ruyter was poisoned with cyanide in December, the ‘investigating sergeants’ had no clue what cyanide was and confused the word with ‘sinus’.

In De Ruyter’s case, it has become apparent that formal charges laid to the police have been thwarted, dismissed or ignored by the very people implicated in the corruption and who have the power to shut down any such investigations.

It is conceivable that those same ANC officials, critical of De Ruyter, are the ones he is levelling accusations against.

The underlying take on these incidents is the fact that the ruling party has created an atmosphere in which, in many cases, barely literate, undertrained police officers are perceived to be incapable of fulfilling their duties required to protect the public, and are instead, beholden to important political officials who, under normal circumstances, would themselves be the subject of criminal investigations.

Vigilantism is discouraged by government officials because they maintain that law enforcement and due process is the correct way to deal with crime.

That has become a facile and a casual throw-away sound bite, uttered by the minister of police.

With little or no confidence in effective and efficient policing, untainted by corruption and political expediency, the citizens of this country have every reason to be cynical.

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