WHEN COPS FAIL US

Comment

The major bleed of the country’s coffers is no longer theft, corruption, wasteful expenditure and misguided priorities. It is now the deliberate effort to do nothing about it – particularly by the key players or agencies that ought to be relied upon to display a high level of commitment and execution of their mandates.

One of these agencies is the police service which partly plays the role of revenue collector in spot fines for traffic offences and custodians of proceeds from crime, including money – all of which should be remitted to the National Treasury as soon as reasonably possible.

To say we are utterly dismayed to learn that what was supposed to be a secured iron volt at a police station, turned out to be a leaking safe, where criminal elements helped themselves to almost half a million Emalangeni right under the nose of the country’s supposedly most trusted servants, is an understatement.
Efforts to recover the money were quashed by the culprit’s cunning ability to withdraw the pension fund that could have refunded the taxpayer, allegedly with the assistance of an officer who provided the necessary correspondence.

If that is not shocking enough, the Public Accounts Committee was told yesterday that the punishment given to the officer, who aided the deceased to withdraw the pension, only got a slap on the wrist as punishment. He was only deprived of his days off. This is nonsensical!

If this is the attitude of law enforcers in dealing with crime, how do we ever hope to get the general public to play its part? Is there appreciation of the dire need for cash to service the hospitals that continue to go without adequate drugs, or the extreme level of frustration that the elderly are subjected to while government tries to raise money to pay them? Not to mention the schools that have gone an entire term without funding.

The PAC has correctly asked the acting Police Commissioner, William Dlamini, to produce proof of disciplinary action that suits the crime. 
Dlamini has to demonstrate serious commitment to rooting out corruption within the police service, if he is to stamp his authority as a credible leader worthy of the title.

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