‘No file, no drug verdict’

The war against druglords and drug-related crimes is clearly being lost in the province, especially in Polokwane with drug-related crimes having increased some 46% in the period between April 2012 and March 2013.

This makes Limpopo the province with the highest drug-related crime levels in the country.

This daunting fact was confirmed last week when some very worried police officials, who wish to remain anonymous, spoke to Review about the situation in Polokwane.

“The fight against drugs is an endless battle that we can never win as things stand at the moment.

It is like trying to batter down a stone wall with our bare hands. It is destroying the morale of every police official who wants to get rid of drugs and the crimes they are related to,” one police official attached to the organised crime unit said.

He and other police officials said they could no longer keep quiet about the circumstances they were forced to work under when it came to drug-related crimes.

All the police officials who spoke to Review said information regarding drug-related activities, which they gathered and then handed over to their commanding officers, was just “getting lost” in the system. They said this included evidence such as photos, names, times, dates and venues.

“When we make follow-ups on the cases, we are told that no such cases exist. They simply disappear,” one frustrated policeman said.

In some cases drug offenders are allowed to pay an “admission of guilt” fine and are then released.

This is not lawful as any drug-related crime is a scheduled crime and cannot simply be resolved by paying a fine, one senior police official said.

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Westenburg police spokesperson, Capt Mohlaka Mashiane refuted this saying there were certain cases where an admission of guilt was allowed, depending on the weight of the drugs the perpetrator was caught with.Other suspicious incidents were occurring in the city that were making them even more worried that their commanding officers at the highest level were in cahoots with drug syndicates in the city, the police officials said. The police official related a recent incident: A police official was attacked and stabbed with a knife at a filling station in Polokewane, allegedly by a known Nigerian drug dealer, when he tried to stop a drug deal from being made. The suspected drug dealer was arrested but later released after he allegedly bribed the two police officials who were responsible for taking him to the police station and charging him. “Our mandate requires that we let the smaller drug runners and dealers go and we are only allowed to get involved when the kingpins are involed. This leaves the drug runners free to do whatever they want whenever they want. We (the police), who have sworn to serve and protect, can’t lift a finger against them,” the police official explained.

Another police official said a different Nigerian man who was apparently well known in drug circles had recently bragged how he was released and never charged after he was arrested because he gave the police official R1 000 to do so.

The police officials also alleged that ceertain top police officers in the province were such good friends with the druglords that they even attended parties thrown by them.

They said to make matters worse, when on the odd occasion that a drug-related case did reach court, the case would continuously be postponed until everyone lost interest or was thrown out.

The police official attached to the organised crime unit further said the police’s claims that there was a task team working on the problem were false. “I know for a fact there is no drug task team operating here (Polokwane). Neither is there any suspected drug-house being kept under surveillance, as police management claims,” he said vehemently. “If we were allowed to arrest the drug users and the small-time runners and sellers, we would be able to stop the bigger dealers and druglords in their tracks,” he said.

Sanca Polokwane director Riette van der Linde confirmed that the drug problem was much bigger than anyone, including the police, were willing to say. “The drug problem is everywhere including in most schools,” she said.

Provincial police spokesperson Ronél Otto said she could not comment immediately on these allegations and would investigate the matter before commenting at a later date.

On being asked the reason why the latest statistics showed that Limpopo had the highest percentage of drug-related crimes in the country, recently-appointed provincial police commissioner, Lt Gen Fannie Masemola referred the question to assistant provincial commissioner, Maj Gen Bennie Ntlemeza he could reassure the media and residents that the police were aware of all information supplied and concerns raised in this regard, and “the police are working on these issues”. Ntlemeza would not elaborate further on the matter.