[imagesource:iol/cc]

The recent Philippi Training College scandal is not doing anything to improve public trust in our boys in blue. If anything, it seems to imply that if you are in trouble, you should rather phone a gang member than a cop. At least they are honest about who they are.

Johan Burger, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies confirms the deterioration of trust, saying that surveys such as Afrobarometer and Statistics SA show that over the last 15 years, public trust and confidence have decreased in the police by about 36%.

For those who have not heard, or stopped caring, the ‘Phillipi Scandal’ was exposed in a piece by the Citizen, after which crime activist and the thorn in Bheki Cele’s side, Ian Cameron, reported the head of the police college in Philippi was being transferred after alleged misconduct.

This alleged misconduct seems to involve the college officials using funding allocated for training police officers as pocket money for personal use. And why not? There hasn’t been a financial audit done at the Philippi Training College since 2018. Besides, who is going to bust the officials for stealing college money? The police?

“It’s common knowledge at Philippi College that several staff, administrative and other management members, have bank cards to buy and procure things for the college.

“It’s been reported that senior staff buy personal groceries through the MES fund of the college and take some home. The catering equipment of the college has been used several times for private events and they pocket the money.”

It was also reported that the driver and the head chef, Percy Sereko, were being investigated for allegedly using the college’s catering equipment for private events.

Cameron said it was worrying that the only one in the top five members of the college’s management was a police officer and qualified to be in that position.

“The head of finances at the college has no financial background. He used to be a chef,” he claimed.

A whistle-blower told Rapport the college’s bank statements would be audited to determine if money had been misappropriated.

“Although the statements are incomplete, they can still indicate who has received unnecessary funds,” the source said.

Proving how the percentage of the R110 million that had been channelled to the college in the last six years was misappropriated will not be easy. It will be even harder if the police appoint a plumber to do the audit, seeing as they don’t know what ‘fit for purpose’ means.

“There are people put in positions purely by being friends with the right people or because of political affiliation. There should be no political appointments whatsoever in Saps because it means it becomes a political police service and not a police service for the people.”

If you think it couldn’t get any worse, then you underestimate management at SAPS’s ability to employ the worst people for the job. The very same Citizen reported today that a police instructor at the Phillipi Training Academy has been arrested today for the rape of a trainee on 31 March this year.

Ipid arrested the instructor on Sunday, and he appeared in the Wynberg Magistrates Court yesterday.

It’s no wonder the public doesn’t trust the police anymore. We might as well get the Americans to run SAPS.

[source:citizen]