At least 250 metro police officers in the City of Ekurhuleni have criminal records for serious offenses such as house break-ins, murder, fraud at licensing departments, and driving under the influence.
This comes after the municipality took the fingerprints of 3,449 officers during its 2022 audit with only 3,199 coming back with a clean slate.
Of these guilty offenders, 83 are still awaiting trial with the remaining 167 already having been convicted of their crimes, revealed Councillor Jaco Terblanche, Democratic Alliance (DA) spokesperson for community safety in Ekurhuleni.
“Most of those [officers] got their criminal records after they were appointed, I can say 99% of them,” Terblanche told eNCA.
Not so much as a slap on the wrist
Despite the South African Police Act of 1995 and Criminals Procedures Act of 1997 emphatically stating that no municipal police officer in the country is allowed to have a criminal record, none of these implicated officials have been arrested or suspended from their positions by the City of Ekurhuleni.
“The [Ekurhuleni] metro is not planning to do any disciplinary hearings or take accountability for [these officers],” said Terblanche.
“So our residents are being protected by police officers who are involved in criminal activities, and that is the sad part of it, that’s actually the shocking part of this whole conversation.”
The DA is therefore calling on the Ekurhuleni authorities to vet their officers every financial year – a process that currently happens every two years – to ensure that if a law enforcement official has been convicted of a criminal offense, the appropriate disciplinary action is taken against them.
Ekurhuleni MMC for community safety, Letlhogonolo Moseki, has since promised to initiate thorough background checks on current and future employees to prevent a repeat of these incidents.
The Tshwane Metro Police Department (TMPD) has faced similar issues in the past, leading to the acting chief of police encouraging motorists to record all their interactions with officers through videos and photos in an effort to ensure their safety and root out corruption.
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