An inoculation against cynicism and despair

The newspaper billboard bellowed in temple-pounding capitals: “TOP COP FAILS LIE TEST”. The nation yawned. Only had he passed would it be news.

Meanwhile, Minister in the Presidency Trevor Manuel has just unveiled the National Development Plan (NDP). One of the objectives is that by 2030 South Africans will no longer live in fear of crime.

The nation sighed. Only 19 more years of terror.

The fundamental problem that the government faces in implementing the NDP is the depressing juxtaposition of utopian vision and grim reality, of good intention and crippled ability. And it is the failure of the state to execute its primary function, that of securing the safety of its citizens, that encapsulates this.

Two national police commissioners, in short succession, have bitten the dust to corruption claims. Both were the deployed darlings of the African National Congress, their fancy uniforms and medallioned bling not the culmination of experience in policing but instead the largesse of political masters.

Not that selecting from the ranks would necessarily have given better results. While there are undoubtedly many dedicated and capable police officers, it seems that the only people that South Africans should fear more than its astonishingly violent criminals are the cops sent to investigate.

After all, one has hopes — albeit faint — that ordinary criminals will be brought to justice by the police or at least thwarted by the multi-billion private security industry. In contrast, rogue cops act with impunity.

The Independent Complaints Directorate, which polices the police, records that its annual workload to end March 2011 involved 1 276 deaths in custody, 3 390 criminal cases, and 3 603 misconduct cases. Approximately a tenth of these complaints, in all categories, led to prosecution recommendations by the IDT.

The ICD recommended disciplinary action to the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) in 1 211 misconduct cases. The SAPS took up a paltry 88 cases and the outcome was in the overwhelming majority of cases no more than a warning or a reprimand.

Only six officers were dismissed and one suspended for six months, despite the “misconduct” including assault with intent to cause grievous bodily harm, attempted murder and murder.

The statistics for yet another dismal year of policing show that a grand total of 30 cops were convicted for wrongful deaths and 29 for crimes. Agent 007 had a licence merely to kill, SAPS has a licence to kill, assault and plunder.

The NDP is the result of an exhaustive consultation process and, to the credit of government, drew on expertise across the political spectrum. The NDP’s ideological flexibility — a brave attempt at melding socialist and capitalist tools to combat poverty, improve employment and reduce inequality — makes it the most encouraging set of proposals to come out of the maws of government for a long time.

President Jacob Zuma commended the National Planning Commission (NPC), for their “impressive” work and said the plan will now be “refined” by Cabinet before adoption and implementation. Therein lies the rub.

It is its intellectual flexibility, perversely, that will guarantee the NDP the destructive enmity of the ANC’s partners — the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party. For many people in the tripartite alliance, political purity is more important than getting things done. In the SAPS, for example, it has always been more important to fill the higher ranks with party apparatchiks than efficient cops.

The NPC’s Cyril Ramaphosa traced the NDP back to the social compact, “forged through compromise with the promise of mutual benefit” that gave South Africa its Constitution. With that in mind, the Zuma Cabinet should weigh when “refining” the NDP, that it is so much more than a blueprint for development; it is a much-needed alternative to the South African public’s growing despair and cynicism.