Five policemen have been arrested for alleged involvement in a Johannesburg jewellery-store robbery, Gauteng police said on Monday. Police spokesman Colonel Neville Malila said two officers were arrested at their homes in Pretoria on Sunday following an armed robbery in Jeppe Street, Johannesburg. This brought the number of policemen arrested in the matter to five. The first three were arrested on Friday after leaving a robbery at a jewellery store on the corner of Jeppe and Harrison streets.
The two officers, both aged 41, arrested on Sunday were from the Pretoria West and Boschkop detective branches. They would face charges of armed robbery and possession of an illegal firearm when they appeared in the Johannesburg Magistrate's Court on Monday. Malila said the investigator would request a postponement for further investigation.
During a search of the homes detectives confiscated an R5 rifle with two magazines, 60 rounds of ammunition and 19 case dockets from different detective branches. “Detectives have positively linked some of the jewellery that was confiscated from the arrested suspects, as well as the rifle, to an armed robbery at the North Gate Mall's NWJ jewellery shop on October 4.”
During the October 4 robbery, a group of between eight and 12 men shot and killed a jewellery-shop manager, aged 38, and wounded four other people before fleeing the scene, Malila said. “Several suspects have been arrested in the matter that is currently before court.”
The Hawks arrested another three officers, aged between 31 and 35, in an unrelated matter on Thursday in Magaliesburg. The constables were wanted in connection with a November 10 truck hijacking. They would appear in the Magaliesburg Magistrate's Court on Monday on charges of corruption. These arrests brought the number of police officials arrested the past few days to eight, Malila said.
Gauteng police provincial commissioner Mzwandile Petros warned police officers that corruption would not be tolerated. He said since September 1 more than 125 police officials had been arrested for corruption and other related cases. This showed the “vigour and seriousness of this management to root out corruption”. “SAPS members responsible for tarnishing our professional image will be severely dealt with and must face the consequences of their corrupt behaviour,” he said in a statement. Internal SAPS disciplinary investigations into the suspension of the members were underway.
Source: IoL
Showing posts with label Mzwandile Petros. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mzwandile Petros. Show all posts
Monday, December 13, 2010
Friday, November 5, 2010
Cloud over murder statistics
A filing cabinet packed with about 100 postmortem reports of murders and other unnatural deaths, which were not referred to the police for investigation, has been discovered at the Salt River mortuary in Cape Town. The discovery was made last year and brought to the attention of Mzwandile Petros, the former Western Cape police commissioner, now the commissioner in Gauteng. It is understood that he did not act until health authorities confirmed the existence of the reports.
It has been reported that Petros is heading a task team that is conducting a countrywide investigation into the validity of crime statistics, particularly with regard to inquest and murder dockets. His latest appointment will raise eyebrows, given his lack of prompt action in solving the Salt River mortuary mystery and his failure to launch an inquiry into the alleged manipulation of crime statistics at police stations in the Western Cape.
The Salt River post-mortems are understood to date back three years. Although the bodies were removed for burial or cremation, the cases were not investigated as they were not registered on the police crime administration system. Police liaison officers were sent to the mortuary earlier this year to address the problem and by last month the final post-mortem reports were registered with the police, sources said.
Many of the names of the deceased were found recorded in the reports but some identities were unknown. A similar situation arose at Tygerberg mortuary, where a smaller cache of post-mortem reports was found, but these were later registered with the police. The issue of how to prevent a recurrence was raised at recent meetings of the health department (which runs the two mortuaries), the police and justice officials. Petros was handed a detailed report on the issue after the matter had been raised at previous meetings. However, the police have still not established who put the post-mortem reports in the cabinet, or why they were not referred to the police.
It is believed these cases could have fallen through the cracks, as bodies are sometimes removed from Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals and taken to mortuaries without police obtaining particulars. The task team that Petros has been appointed to lead is reported to be analysing 31 253 inquest dockets opened in the nine provinces in the 2009-2010 financial year. The probe is intended to reveal whether police stations filed deaths incorrectly under "inquest" instead of "murder".
In September Nathi Mthethwa, the police minister, announced that violent crime had declined last year, with murders down 8,6%. But police say the nationwide probe could raise questions about the authenticity of these figures. Last year former Western Cape police commissioner Lennit Max accused Petros of ignoring a letter he had written to him and the former acting national commissioner, Tim Williams, calling for an inquiry into the information he had been given that crime statistics were being manipulated at police stations in Paarl, Paarl East, Mbekweni, Wellington and Oudtshoorn.
The Independent Complaints Directorate eventually investigated the matter, and said earlier this year that Petros had stalled the release of the long-awaited report. According to leaked internal police reports, Petros and one of his former assistants, Anwa Dramat, now head of the Hawks, were informed at least three years ago that police stations in the province were manipulating crime statistics.
Petros claimed that one of the reports was a fake and refused to discuss the others. Neither Petros nor the Western Cape police had responded to questions from the Mail & Guardian at the time of going to press.
Source: Mail & Guardian
It has been reported that Petros is heading a task team that is conducting a countrywide investigation into the validity of crime statistics, particularly with regard to inquest and murder dockets. His latest appointment will raise eyebrows, given his lack of prompt action in solving the Salt River mortuary mystery and his failure to launch an inquiry into the alleged manipulation of crime statistics at police stations in the Western Cape.
The Salt River post-mortems are understood to date back three years. Although the bodies were removed for burial or cremation, the cases were not investigated as they were not registered on the police crime administration system. Police liaison officers were sent to the mortuary earlier this year to address the problem and by last month the final post-mortem reports were registered with the police, sources said.
Many of the names of the deceased were found recorded in the reports but some identities were unknown. A similar situation arose at Tygerberg mortuary, where a smaller cache of post-mortem reports was found, but these were later registered with the police. The issue of how to prevent a recurrence was raised at recent meetings of the health department (which runs the two mortuaries), the police and justice officials. Petros was handed a detailed report on the issue after the matter had been raised at previous meetings. However, the police have still not established who put the post-mortem reports in the cabinet, or why they were not referred to the police.
It is believed these cases could have fallen through the cracks, as bodies are sometimes removed from Groote Schuur and Tygerberg hospitals and taken to mortuaries without police obtaining particulars. The task team that Petros has been appointed to lead is reported to be analysing 31 253 inquest dockets opened in the nine provinces in the 2009-2010 financial year. The probe is intended to reveal whether police stations filed deaths incorrectly under "inquest" instead of "murder".
In September Nathi Mthethwa, the police minister, announced that violent crime had declined last year, with murders down 8,6%. But police say the nationwide probe could raise questions about the authenticity of these figures. Last year former Western Cape police commissioner Lennit Max accused Petros of ignoring a letter he had written to him and the former acting national commissioner, Tim Williams, calling for an inquiry into the information he had been given that crime statistics were being manipulated at police stations in Paarl, Paarl East, Mbekweni, Wellington and Oudtshoorn.
The Independent Complaints Directorate eventually investigated the matter, and said earlier this year that Petros had stalled the release of the long-awaited report. According to leaked internal police reports, Petros and one of his former assistants, Anwa Dramat, now head of the Hawks, were informed at least three years ago that police stations in the province were manipulating crime statistics.
Petros claimed that one of the reports was a fake and refused to discuss the others. Neither Petros nor the Western Cape police had responded to questions from the Mail & Guardian at the time of going to press.
Source: Mail & Guardian
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