TV news told us yesterday that former Vlakplaas commander, Dirk Coetzee, had died. The news bulletins reminded viewers that Coetzee was a key figure whenever the apartheid government decided to murder someone.
TV news told us yesterday that former Vlakplaas commander, Dirk Coetzee, had died. The news bulletins reminded viewers that Coetzee was a key figure whenever the apartheid government decided to murder someone.
We are shocked to the core yet again when we are forced to remember how Coetzee and his cohorts tortured and killed people who thought that democracy was a good idea.
Thankfully, state-sanctioned murder is no longer a part of the South African government’s culture.
The prevailing ethos within the ruling party’s inner circles would under no circumstances condone such savage cruelty.
It is therefore extraordinary that we have seen so many incidents of police barbarity in recent months while government does nothing to restrain rogue elements within the police force.
We are certain that there are many excellent policemen who work for the SAPS because we have met them and seen how seriously they take their work.
The problem is that there are many others who believe that their uniform entitles them to abduct or kill whoever they want whenever they please.
The cases of Andries Tatane, the Marikana miners and Mido Macia are only a handful of incidents that were fortuitously recorded on video to reveal the horrors of a police force gone wild.
The videos in all three of the above-mentioned cases show policemen who are quite relaxed about committing murder in public.
In the most recent incident – that caused the death of taxi driver Mido Macia – the policemen had no reason to confront the Mozambican national, but even if they did, there was definitely no reason to drag the hand-cuffed man behind their vehicle.
They did it out of pure blood-lust in front of a crowd to show their impunity.
We should not be surprised when policemen arrest and beat up people for their own amusement.
The current head National Police Commissioner, Riah Phiyega, was reportedly laughing while she watched video recordings of miners being murdered at Marikana and former Police Commissioners, Jackie Selebi and Bheki Cele were removed from office because of their illegal activities.
To repeat the old adage that a fish rots from the head down might be somewhat hackneyed, but in the case of the SAPS, it rings inexorably true.
Since government in general and the minister of police in particular, have done nothing to curb police brutality and murders, we might be forced to assume that they are not very different from Dirk Coetzee’s bosses.
