Suspended Deputy National Police Commissioner for crime detection Lt-Gen Shadrack Sibiya told the Parliamentary ad hoc committee that the political killings task team is not assisting the country.
Sibiya said the country is many crime infested communities such as Eldorado Park and Westbury but the focus is placed on the task team rather than dealing with daily challenges faced in such communities.
“I say it is not helping the country, we must build a country where capacity must be evenly distributed. Every office must be prolific as possible,” said Sibiya.
Expensive exercise
He claimed that task teams demand more money from the police. Sibiya added that detectives would dump the dockets they are currently working on to join a task team and focus on its work. This, he said, leads to high-cost invoices.
Sibiya said the political killings task team has had a budget of an estimated R500-million to date.
“We have task teams around that are not properly controlled and they claim a lot of money. The same applies to this task team, this committee must request for an audit of the overtime and S&T (subsistence and travel allowances) claimed by these members of this task team since their establishment.
“I say when you look at vision 2030, you’ve got to build a capable state, well-resourced with technology, capable and able,” said Sibiya
He said murder and robbery units need to be well-equiped.
Driven by need to protect cartels
National police commissione Fannie Masemola had told the Madlanga commission that Sibiya’s move to issue out instructions for the immediate disbandment of the KwaZulu-Natal political killings task team was not based on a procedural motive. It was based on a “motive to protect cartels”.
However, Sibiya argued before the committee that this directive was from Masemola’s office and the email that came from Masemola’s office gave him instruction to implement.