The City of Ekurhuleni which is part of Johannesburg as the city is broken up into districts with Ekurhuleni controlling everything North and East of the city center are now vetting their police. You would think that part of the mandatory signing up process would involve back ground checks considering you are giving that person a position of authority which includes a fire arm.
In the past literally hundreds of police officers have been caught for criminality yet they were protected by those running the police force. The credibility of the police force was lost a long time ago and this may help bring back positivity. Highly doubtful as who would call a policeman if you need help as there are better safer options available in South Africa. Many of the ex police force prior to 1994 resigned and run their own security firms and sadly is the only proper policing in the country.
Just to give an example of how corrupt and inadequate the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department is back in 2022 when the back ground checks started before they were stopped of the 3762 officers 275 had criminal records. There was another 100 besides these 275 ex criminals awaiting trial for various crimes including murder, rape and theft. Of the 3762 officers another 211 refused to offer their finger prints which is odd as everyone who is an SA citizen has an identity document which requires you to give finger prints. The non compliance should result in checking the data base unless they are not registered as SA citizens.
I would comfortably state those refusing to freely hand over finger prints have something to hide and made enough noise to have the vetting process shut down 4 years ago. Thankfully common sense has prevailed and now all the police officers have to have back ground checks and be vetted. If you add up the numbers from 2022 roughly 375 plus the 211 totals 586 bad eggs in the basket which is over 20%. A shockingly high number and people want to know why the SA police are corrupt? This I believe is a fair or realistic figure of the percentage we would find across all the different police forces in SA with a 20-30% having a criminal record.
Over the years we have seen police involved in hijackings of trucks and one has to be naive to think they are not involved in the ongoing problem of cash in transit robberies. Many years ago we had a work truck followed by police that had them arriving back at the warehouse with them asking what we carry in the truck. I told them to get lost before I make some calls because what business do they have of wanting to know this information unless they are up to no good. Many of the police are fake police who are not serving the public, but more about self gain and they need to be removed permanently.
This week the government announced they will conduct life style audits for high ranking police officers which should be an ongoing yearly task. This has only happened due to the coalition government parties tasking the ANC to get this done. We all know these so called police generals are corrupt and think they are above the law because no one would dare question them.
