WESTERN Cape provincial police commissioner Gen Arno Lamoer insisted on Tuesday that corrupt cops who were in cahoots with gangs and drug dealers be dismissed from the service and punished as criminals.
He faced a barrage of questions from MPs in Parliament’s police committee about the incidence of corruption in the South African Police Service (SAPS), with officers being in collusion with criminal gangs on the Cape Flats.
Gang violence has flared in recent months on the flats, with gang members being assassinated and innocent members of the community being killed in the crossfire. The increase caused Western Cape Premier Helen Zille to appeal to President Jacob Zuma to deploy the defence force to keep the gangs under control — which he refused to do.
African Christian Democratic Party leader Kenneth Meshoe led the charge in Parliament on Tuesday, asking about the number of police officers who were "on the payroll of the gangs and drug dealers".
Rev Meshoe said he doubted there was the will in the SAPS to effectively combat gang violence in the Western Cape because there was nothing new in Gen Lamoer’s presentation to the committee.
Gen Lamoer responded that he was unable to give the committee details of operations against the gangs because the meeting was open to both the public and the media and this would advertise his strategies to the gangs themselves.
He gave the committee the assurance that crooked police officers and gang kingpins were being prosecuted.
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