DA calls for an IPID investigation into SAPS and ANC abuse of state resources
27 April 2014
The DA will be calling for the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID)to investigate the incident that involved members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) VIP protection unit confiscating a journalist's phone and deleting evidence of state resources being used during an ANC campaign (see eNCA report and video below).
I will also be writing to the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa and the National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, to motivate for the implicated officials and policemen to be suspended immediately pending the outcome of IPID's investigation.
It has been reported that a journalist witnessed Gauteng traffic officers using state-owned police vehicles to transport ANC t-shirts during President Jacob Zuma's campaign trip to Duduza in Ekurhuleni on Friday. When the said journalist took pictures of these traffic police officers alongside ANC officials, a member of the presidential VIP protection unit, under the directorate of the SAPS, confiscated his phone and deleted the evidence that was in the form of pictures.
This incident fully encapsulates the ANC's complete disregard for our democratic institutions such as our independent media. The problem with this behaviour by President Zuma's ANC is two-fold: state resources were being used to campaign for the ANC during the President's visit in the area in his capacity as the ANC head and a journalist's right to freedom of expression that is protected in our Constitution has been clearly violated by the very people who are meant to protect it.
More pertinently, this is a clear example of the increasing politicisation of the SAPS- something that is in stark contrast with the oath of their office.
That is why the DA will be requesting that IPID launches a full investigation into this incident. It must be probed why state resources were being used by traffic police officers to campaign for the ANC and why a SAPS member took violent measures to bury the evidence of this abuse.
It is not surprising that incidents like this keep occurring. Under President Zuma we have seen a clear militarisation and politicisation of the SAPS. We have also witnessed the abuse and disregard of our Constitution and the values enshrined in it. This is the work of a political party that is desperate to clutch onto power even at the expense of those who have elected them into office.
The DA will do everything possible to ensure that as we celebrate 20 years of democracy, Zuma's ANC does not tarnish the work of those who made invaluable sacrifices to ensure that South Africa enjoys a constitutional democracy.
Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, April 27 2014
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
