MEDIA STATEMENT
BY THE
INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
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Inkatha Freedom Party Statement By:
13 September 2007 The Inkatha Freedom Party believes the time has come for a Jali Commission type of inquiry into alleged corruption within the police forces of South Africa. On a daily basis we read and hear of numerous allegations of corruption, maladministration, nepotism, intimidation and other improper conduct within the metro police and the South African Police Service (SAPS). The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), an independent mechanism established to ensure that policing in our country takes place within a human rights ethic, and that those officers who do not uphold the rule of law are held accountable for their actions, is unfortunately NOT doing their job. The situation has become so extreme now that we can not turn a blind eye any longer. We need to appoint an independent judicial commission of inquiry to thoroughly investigate ALL allegations and to make comprehensive recommendations in this regard. On March 9, 1998, Robert McBride, then a high-ranking official in the Department of Foreign Affairs, was arrested by the Mozambican police for allegedly smuggling weapons from Mozambique to South Africa. He maintained his innocence and was later released. In 2003, McBride was appointed Chief of the Metropolitan (metro) Police for the Ekurhuleni Municipality. On December 21, 2006, McBride rolled his vehicle at high speed while returning from a metro police year-end function. According to witnesses, McBride was under the influence of alcohol, but metro police on the scene assaulted the witnesses and threatened to shoot them if they phoned the South African Police (SAPS). Following the accident, three of the metro police officers involved gave "damning statements" to the South African Police against McBride. McBride is alleged to have instructed his metro police officers "to shoot all the SAPS members in the head if they touched their firearms". He is also alleged to have called senior police officers present at the scene "baboons and pieces of shit". The IFP can't help but wonder if there might be any link between the metro cop who was arrested for selling ammunition earlier this week and his mischievous suspended boss, Mr Robert McBride, who allegedly smuggled weapons from Mozambique to South Africa in the late nineties. The ammo selling metro cop, also from the East Rand just like Mr McBride, is apparently selling his stock to the residents of the Denver hostels in Joburg. The most important thing now will be for the authorities to find out where this metro cop is finding the large quantities of ammunition he is selling. The IFP believes that the only way we can eliminate the current corruption crisis within our police forces is to set up a proper Jali Commission type investigation. We need to find out why it is that we frequently hear that those who should be protecting us, are in fact criminals themselves. Urgent recommendations and solutions are needed.
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