August 2005
 
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Whats New
 

Business as Usual: Police, Conflict Prevention, and Development
By Alice Hills in: Building Effective and Accountable Security Institutions in Africa : A Dialogue on Governance The Bimyns Hotel, Cotonou, Republic of Benin 18-20 April 2005
Jeffrey O. Isima ed. Paper Number 101. 2005.

Alice Hills explores the idea that the security sector consists of more than the military and that the concept has broadened so that policing is seen as being part of conflict prevention and management in post-conflict situations. She continues that some of the problems confronting the role the public police play in these situations include:

  • "Lack of consensus in the definition of ´conflict prevention´ and ´development´ and the linkages between the two.
  • Policing is by nature essentially reactive and coercive, being dependent on executive directive, and susceptible to the risk of politicisation.
  • Donors have different priorities and motives for police reform and allocate their resources accordingly. This results in varied impacts on police reforms.
  • Some SSR programmes are driven by political concerns or by donors eager to project an image of progress, while others are internal emergency arrangements aimed at reassuring donors".

She concludes with some lessons that can be learnt in the role that the police play in conflict prevention in post-conflict state through instituting a form of democratic control, obtaining international support for police reform, provide safety for the public, consider policing in the political and broader security structure.

This presentation is from a report of a three-day workshop on Security Sector Governance in Africa, held in Cotonou, the Republic of Benin, in April 2005. The Workshop was organised by the African Security Sector Network (ASSN) in collaboration with the Group on the Democratic, Economic and Social Development of Africa (GERDDES - Africa) and the African Security Dialogue Research (ASDR), and facilitated by the Global Facilitation Network for Security Sector Reform (GFN-SSR).

http://www.gfn-ssr.org/edocs/gfn101_isimaj_Benin_Conference_Report_2005.doc



Oversight of Policing in South Africa by Anthony Altbeker. Presentation to the Open Society Foundation of South Africa Workshop held in Johannesburg - 25th and 26th July.

The presentation explores
(1) Conceptualising oversight
(2) How well are we doing - looking at the roles of the ICD, the Secretariats, Institutions in civil society, and Community Police FOrums

Altbeker concludes that although the oversight agencies are not functioning all that well, the police are in relatively good shape and that they appear to have developed a professional ethos and this needs to be built on.

In the future, concern with oversight should look at three under-theorised areas:
  • The extent to which oversight through the courts actually works;
  • The impact on accountability of centralisation in policing should be examined; and
  • Civil society should consider ways to become more active and diverse in order to
    challenge the comfortable consensus that sometimes operates in the sector.

Summary of presentation available online >>>>

Power point presentation available online >>>>


Strengthening Democratic Policing in South Africa: Enhancing and Coordinating the Internal and External Accountability Systems of the South African Police Service
by Themba Masuku
Research report written for the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, July 2005.
The primary aim of this report is to promote insight and debate into the issue of strengthening democratic policing in South Africa. This is done through exploring the importance and functioning of various police accountability mechanisms in South Africa.

Access online: http://www.csvr.org.za/papers/papmasuk.htm


Policing domestic violence: the enthusiasm gap by Anthony Altbeker SA Crime Quarterly No. 12 June 2005
"Those monitoring the Domestic Violence Act generally conclude that it is poorly understood and badly implemented by officials in the criminal justice system. But a project aimed at understanding how ordinary cops police South Africa´s streets concludes that part of the problem with this conclusion is a failure to grasp the real limitations - legal, logistical and emotional - under which policing operates. These limitations, combined with the sheer volume of cases, affect the way in which ordinary officers handle these incidents."

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Current News
 

South Africa:

Researcher reveals why gangs are running wild
Staff Writer. Cape Times www.iol.co.za 18/08/2005
Gangs are responsible for up to 70 percent of crime on the Cape Flats - but efforts to shackle their bosses under a special law are failing because of a lack of co-operation between police and prosecuting authorities, a researcher has found. Also, evidence collected in traditional police investigations had often been exposed as inadequate and disorganised, leading to weak state cases against gang bosses, Andre Standing, of the Institute for Security Studies and a researcher on gang activity, says in a paper published this month.
View details>>>>

View the article The threat of gangs and anti-gangs policy: Policy discussion paper:
www.iss.co.za/pubs/papers/116/Paper116.htm

Minister faces police negligence lawsuits
SAPA The Citizen 18/08/2005
The Minister of Safety and Security on Wednesday faced two hefty lawsuits in the Pretoria High Court, in which people claimed damages for alleged police negligence. View details>>>>

Police accused of harassing men seeking casual work
Fatima Schroeder. Cape Times 15/08/2005
A project aimed at providing work for the unemployed is taking the Minister for Safety and Security and the police to the Cape High Court, charging that police have continually harassed people seeking casual work.
View details >>>>

Killers of 10 000 South Africans walking free
Alex Eliseev, Jonathan Ancer and Gill Gifford. www.iol.co.za 15/08/2005
ISS´s Anton du Plessis said the country´s high murder rate meant too few police officers were available to investigate each case. "Only about seven police personnel are available to work on each murder. It doesn´t sound too bad, except when you consider that the number includes all administration workers, detectives and managers". View details>>>>

Criminal: System being undermined by lost case dockets - DA
The Citizen. SAPA www.citizen.co.za 12/08/2005
South Africa´s criminal justice system is being undermined by disappearing police case dockets, and Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula needs to tackle this problem urgently, says the Democratic Alliance.
View details>>>>


F Cachalia to meet police leadership about strikes
Department of Community Safety, Gauteng Provincial Government 11/08/2005
Gauteng Community Safety MEC Firoz Cachalia will today meet police leadership and Metro Chiefs of Police to discuss policing of the ongoing strikes. The MEC has taken an active interest on the issue to ensure that the Law Enforcement Agencies act resolutely and firmly to maintain the law and protect public spaces whilst at the same time upholding the constitutionally entrenched right to hold a demonstration, picket or present a petition on any issue of concern.
View details>>>>


Rubber bullets fired as protest turns to riot
SAPA. Independent Online 10/08/2005
Striking municipal workers placed burning tyres on a feeder road into the East Rand town of Alberton on Wednesday, a Metro Police spokesperson said. And in Kempton Park, police fired rubber bullets to disperse a group breaking fire hydrants. View details>>>>

Tough action to be taken against lazy police officers in N West
Thapelo Sakoana. Bua News 02/08/2005
North West MEC for Safety and Liaison Maureen Modiselle has vowed to strengthen disciplinary and punitive measures against police officers who drag their feet in accelerating the pace of service delivery.
View details>>>>

400 police graduates for trains
Karen Breytenbach. Cape Times 26/07/2005
Train commuters will soon find a strong 24-hour police presence on all trains and stations in the Cape Peninsula supplied by the 400 freshly graduated constables who will become part of the South African Police Service´s (SAPS) revived railway police. View details>>>>


Mbeki receives Scorpions report
www.news24.com 25/07/2005
Pretoria - The Khampepe Commission of Inquiry has submitted an interim report into the Scorpions to President Thabo Mbeki, the body announced on Monday. The probe is examining whether the Directorate of Special Operations - better known as the Scorpions - should remain under the umbrella of the department of justice as the prosecuting arm of the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), or fall instead into the jurisdiction of the South African Police Service, as has been proposed. View details>>>>


Angola:

Angola Chairs SADC Police Chiefs Organisation
Angola Press Agency (Luanda) 01/08/2005
Angola has assumed as from Monday the chairmanship of the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Co-operation Organisation (SARPCCO) at the regional body´s tenth annual meeting, taking place in the country´s capital, Luanda. View details>>>>

Nigeria:

Despite Reforms, Police Routinely Practice Torture
Human Rights Watch 26/07/2005
Despite Nigeria´s progress on democratic reforms, Nigerian police routinely commit brutal acts of torture that have endured since the country´s era of military rule, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. The 76 page report is called Rest in Pieces - Police Torture and Deaths in Custody in Nigeria. View details>>>>

DRC:

A "new" police oversight network in Kinshasa created
OMPDH 09/07/2005
A "new" police oversight network in Kinshasa has been created. It is made up of 20 human rights NGOs under the label "Observatoire des Manifestations Pacifiaues des Droits de l´Homme -OMPD." This network has launched its monitoring activities. The first one took place on Saturday 09/07/2005 when the famous political opponent Etienne Tshisekedi (Leader of UDPS) gathered around 15 thousands people together at Tata Rapael Stadium of Kinshasa for a speech related to the police violent repression against UDPS´s demonstrators on 30/06/2005. The network OMPDH aims to act over demonstration circumstances and in linkage with those acting in provinces, with the potential and willingness to join the Southern Africa Police Oversight dynamic.

DRC: Seven Killed in Demonstrations, Hundreds Arrested
UN Integrated Regional Information Networks 30/06/2005
At least seven protestors were killed and hundreds more arrested in demonstrations on Thursday in various suburbs Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and in other urban areas. View details>>>>

UN Orders Halt to Demolitions
Walter Marwizi. Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
The United Nations wants President Mugabe to stop, forthwith, forced evictions and demolitions under "Operation Restore Order/ Murambatsvina" and to ensure that architects of the exercise are brought to book. Anna Kajumulo Tibaijuka, the Special United Nations Envoy on Human Settlement Issues in Zimbabwe, has produced a 100-page damning report on "Operation Murambatsvina", prompting UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to remark in New York on Friday: "It is a profoundly distressing report, which confirms that ´Operation Murambatsvina´ has done a catastrophic injustice to as many as 700 000 of Zimbabwe´s poorest citizens, through indiscriminate actions, carried out with disquieting indifference to human suffering. "I call on the Government (of Zimbabwe) to stop these forced evictions and demolitions immediately, and to ensure that those who orchestrated this ill-advised policy are held fully accountable for their actions." View details>>>>

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Conferences
 
The 8th World Conference on Injury Prevention and Safety Promotion. Data to Action: Securing safety as a right, will be held from the 2nd to the 5th April 2006 at the ICC, Durban, South Africa. Information about the conference can be accessed on www.safety2006.info . Co-sponsered by the Dept of Health South Africa and the World Health Organisation. Co-organised by UNISA, MRC and FPD. Email: sec@safety2006.info for more information
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