POLICE PROTECT DRUGLORDS - ZILLE

There is a "rising tide" of corruption in the SA Police Service,
Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille alleged yesterday.

"Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula and the leadership
of the SAPS need to find the political will to acknowledge the grave
threat that police corruption poses to our country," she said in her
weekly online newsletter.

One of the main reasons the fight against drugs in South Africa was
so ineffective was that the police were protecting druglords.

Referring to the charges against National Police Commissioner Jackie
Selebi, Zille said many South Africans would not have been
particularly surprised to learn of allegations that he was being paid
protection money by a drug kingpin.

"After all, that merely reflects their daily experience at grassroots
level, where distraught families of drug addicts are convinced that
druglords are being protected by corrupt local policemen in return for bribes.

"In KwaZulu Natal, for example, the use of 'sugars' - a deadly
mixture of low-grade heroin, cocaine and dagga - is spreading
rapidly, largely due to the alleged co-operation between drug dealers
and crooked SAPS officers."

Zille said that when the police arrested her and other members of the
community during a legal and peaceful anti-drug march in Mitchells
Plain recently, she had experienced first hand the police hostility
towards those who were taking a stand against drugs.

"It was a surreal experience to be marching from one drug den to
another [which often look like villas compared to the humble houses
around them].

"I asked myself again and again: how is it possible that dealers can
continue to ply an illegal trade that is destroying an entire
generation of young people, under the noses of the police?"

Zille said the Selebi case made the answer obvious.

"Police protection of druglords is the key reason why the fight
against the local drug trade is so ineffective."

Most telling was the acute perception of police corruption among the
police themselves.

"According to last year's Institute for Security Studies survey of
the police, 92% agreed that police corruption is a 'serious
challenge' and 54% believed that corruption had increased in the
previous four years.

Zille said there remained a great many policemen and women across the
country who remained steadfastly committed to the battle against crime.

"These hard-working officers are increasingly undermined by the
culture of graft and self-interest which is causing the public to
lose faith in the force.

"I often ask myself: What can we do to help the many honest police
officers to fight back against the rising tide of corruption and turn
the SAPS into the force for good that it should be?" she said. - Sapa