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Unsolved murders
| Date: |
04 June 2006 12:00 |
| Producer: |
Jonathan H Pienaar
Sophia Phirippides
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| Show: | Carte Blanche |
Devi Sankaree Govender (Carte Blanche presenter): 'In the last 10 years 200 000 South Africans have lost their lives to murder.'
Anthony Altbeker (Institute of Security Studies): 'Those are figures not unlike what you'd expect in a war.'
Chris Nash (murder victim's father): 'The street was full of emergency vehicles and police cars and, for some reason, I went next door. I found Zach lying on the kitchen floor with a bullet hole in his chest and paramedics trying to bring him round.'
Anthony: 'We are a very, very, very violent society. 200 000 families is a lot of death for a society to go through.'
Anthony Altbeker, of the Institute of Security Studies and author of 'The Dirty Work of Democracy,' has spent a year on the ground with policemen, doing extensive research into crime in South Africa.
Anthony: 'If we compare our police officers per a murder, and compare that to other countries around the world, then we are doing significantly worse than the rest of the world.'
Devi: 'It was just before 10 o'clock at night when 19-year-old Julian and 18-year-old Zach Nash were attacked here in their home in Northcliff, Johannesburg. Julian was killed, and Zach lay in a coma for 24 days. All the attacker took were two cell phones, and to this day he hasn't been found.'
Chris: 'That night there were so many police here, and so many people attending to this case who said it was one of the worst they had seen in a long, long time. And they all disappeared and that's the last we ever saw of them.'
Sadly, the Nash family is not alone. Cases like this are reported, investigated, and then often remain unsolved. Carte Blanche is regularly approached by viewers imploring us to find out why murder investigations have come to nothing.
Devi: 'In September last year we randomly selected nine unsolved murder cases, and approached the South African Police Service for feedback as to why these cases remain unsolved.'
In February this year, the SAPS informally gave Carte Blanche feedback on these cases: (2004) Julian Nash. Shot at home in Northcliff. Police Feedback: Cellphone recovered, still under investigation. (UNSOLVED)
Chris: 'We've called them a couple of times and they said, 'we haven't got any further; there is nothing more we can do'.'
We were granted an interview with Commissioner Taioe of the SAPS to discuss the cases that were selected from our Carte Blanche viewers. We especially.........?? the fact that three of the nine were under investigation for police negligence or dereliction of duty.
(2000) Rochelle Allan: Shot in car in Kempton Park. Police Feedback: Under investigation for police negligence (UNSOLVED).
(2005) Tracey Thompson: Murdered in Kempton Park. Police Feedback: Internal Disciplinary Hearing for Dereliction of Duty as investigators didn't do all they could have. (UNSOLVED).
(2000) Marthinus Henning: Shot during hijack. Police Feedback: Under investigation for procedural irregularities in gathering evidence. (UNSOLVED).
When we arrived at police headquarters for our scheduled interview with Commissioner Taioe, we were given the run-around.
Police: 'Clara, the commissioner has not yet come back in?'
Police: 'No, I don't see him yet.'
Devi: 'We were told to contact police spokeswoman, Mary Martins Englebrecht, and she told us that Commissioner Taioe wasn't prepared to give us an on-camera interview.'
No-one from police headquarters has been able to explain this behaviour. So where does that leave the families of the victims?
Chris: 'We don't expect closure within the South African criminal investigation situation in South Africa, we've lived here.'
But the SAPS say they are improving. According to official statistics in their Annual Report, 18.6% of all murder cases were referred to court in 2004, while 2005 showed a 3% improvement to 21.6%.
Devi: 'But who should be held accountable for a situation which may be improving but is still dire? We challenged the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, for some answers.'
Devi: 'Minister, the police have a 21% referral rate to court. Are you happy with that referral rate?'
Charles Nqakula (Minister of Safety and Security): 'Well, I am unhappy of a situation where just one murder is not resolved, by way of taking that case to court and where we will of course procure a judgment against that person who was responsible for that murder.'
Chris: 'I walk past here, and I touch him and I say good morning... It is okay, you get emotional; you can't help it. We're strong, we've got over it.'
Devi: 'Losing a loved one is devastating, and closure may come when the murderer is caught and put behind bars. But in South Africa, only an estimated 18 to 22% of all murders end in convictions. Why are our results so poor?'
Anthony: 'I have spent time with police officers who have 10 or 12 or 15 or 20 murder dockets that they're investigating. Murders in the UK have a team of detectives working on them...'
Devi: 'Per murder?'
Anthony: 'Per murder. The difference is how much labour-power you can throw at bringing a decent docket to court.'
Anthony points out that if South Africa were to have the same ratio of detectives to murder cases as internationally, it would cost two times the entire national budget.
(2005) Ian Lovatt: Shot at home in Ruimsig, Johannesburg. Police Feedback: No leads - under investigation. (UNSOLVED)
The detective on the beat has many obstacles to overcome just to do his job. We spoke to a detective who has been in the service for many years and had more than his fair share of murder cases to deal with.
Devi: 'How many murder cases do you have on your desk right now?'
'Mickey' (Detective, SAPS): '38.'
Devi: 'How many cases would it be humanly possible to deal with?'
Mickey: 'Cases where there are suspects in the process of being prepared for court - four or five.'
Anthony: 'I have met detectives with over 100 open dockets on their desks - they won't all be murders.'
The South African Police Service say they have addressed this problem in two ways - by redeploying experienced people out of management positions to police stations, and by instituting a recruiting drive which will increase membership from 155 000 to 178 000 members in three years' time.
But it takes more than bodies to make a difference, it seems. Things like motor cars, offices and desks.
Mickey: 'Between four or five people you might have one or two vehicles, which will mean - my colleague stays in Krugersdorp or Kagiso, I'll have to drive from here, go and pick him up there and drive back to the scene in Johannesburg, which takes time.'
A police docket is the repository for vital evidence in a case, which should be kept as safe as possible. Two years ago Carte Blanche sent an undercover man with a hidden camera into two police stations, where he easily examined dockets without once being stopped or questioned. Not one of them asked him who he was or what he was doing there.
In fact, it's a theme that recurs with disturbing regularity in many criminal cases.
Mickey: 'The easiest way to get a case thrown out of court... not have the docket there on three or four occasions.'
Devi: 'Has that happened to you?'
Mickey: 'It happens plenty. The policemen at the court say that they didn't receive it back from the prosecutor. The prosecutor produces a book that shows you handed it over, you signed for it... no it must have gone missing. Eventually you bump into the accused three four five months down the line. They tell you they paid somebody R10 000 to get rid of a docket.'
Devi: 'Have you been offered money?'
Mickey: 'I have been offered plenty money for dockets; to make dockets [go] missing, to come and give the wrong evidence in court.'
Devi: 'Have you ever done it?'
Mickey: 'Never.'
Devi: 'Why not?'
Mickey: 'Because it will make me as bad as the next one. It is just going to make the problem so much bigger.'
Charles: 'There is corruption and bribery in the police force... it happens. We have put in systems, though, that have helped us to flush out people like that. In fact there are a number of police officers who, as we speak, who are in jail.'
Devi: 'But are we sending a strong enough message out to policemen?'
Charles: 'We have arrested people who are part of the organised crime unit. Some of them were involved in heists, others were involved in other types of crimes, including bank robberies on so on.'
But with no lock-up facilities for their vital evidence, some police officers resort to unconventional methods.
Mickey: 'That's when you've got to take it into your own hands to make sure that your cases are going somewhere. You keep them with you or you put them away.'
Devi: 'So you would have to leave the office every day with a bunch of files under your arm?'
Mickey: 'You have to baby sit your dockets.'
Devi: 'Because you are afraid that your colleagues may be open to bribery?'
Mickey: 'That's correct.'
When we reported this practice to the Minister of Safety and Security, we were surprised by his response.
Charles: 'If a police officer says that because there are no facilities here to protect a docket I will protect that docket with my life. And indeed some of them have been that creative to take it with them when they feel that at the police station this docket is not going to be safe.'
(2002) Jay Hirschberg: Fell from a bridge in Honeydew. Police Feedback: Referred to Inquest (UNSOLVED).
There are other problems that can impede the pursuit of justice. Inexperienced officers may inadvertently contaminate a crime scene, and reality is anything but a scene from 'CSI'.
Mickey: 'The first person on that scene can bungle the whole scene - doesn't matter what experience would come there afterwards.'
Philip is the late Julian Nash's brother.
Philip Nash (murder victim's brother): 'That night I was horrified to see that, after about a hundred people had walked through our house, the fingerprint technician only arrived about four hours later... And did a finger print only on the front gate, which was open when the guy arrived, so he wouldn't have touched it anyway. And they phoned us and told us that they had a positive fingerprint... which has to be rubbish!'
Mickey: 'If I need people from Forensics that need to be phoned in Pretoria, you can be guaranteed they won't be there within two hours.'
Devi: 'Why not?'
Mickey: 'The forensics team works office hours. They've got stand-by groups that have to get together and come to a scene. And not all scenes will be attended by the forensics experts.'
For detectives like Mickey perhaps the final straw has been the lack of promotion opportunity.
Mickey: 'I've been waiting for a promotion to an officer for the past ten years. You do an application for a post and it gets sent out for a certain race and it says that unfortunately for you there are only five posts that you can apply for in the whole country. It makes you feel that maybe it is time to go and seek greener pastures.'
Many experienced police officers are leaving the SA Police Service to join security companies or private investigation firms.
Devi: 'We've been told that there will no longer be the recruitment of white males. Neither will white males within the police service be promoted. '
Charles: 'That is a lie, a complete fabrication. You will always find as we recruit people coming from the various population groups in South Africa.'
(2003) Carte Blanche Case File no. 6 - Luigi Raimondo: Stabbed to death in Vanderbijl Park. Police Feedback: Suspects found not guilty. Investigation continues.
Devi: 'International studies have shown that the importance of a witness shouldn't be underestimated, as many cases are solved thanks to witness participation.'
Devi: (at house) 'When Percy Masuku was murdered, a witness came forward and the police believed it was an open-and-shut case. But it was not to be.'
Lorentsia's policeman son Percy was gunned down outside his girlfriend's house in Soweto, by a man disguised as a woman. A witness identified the man as a suspect in a murder case that Percy had been investigating.
Lorentsia Tsemelo (Percy's mother): 'That witness said, 'I knew the man. I grew in front of this man; I know the man very well. Even if he had a disguise I know it was him'. And even when they asked, 'How did you recognise him?' the witness said straight, 'I know him because I used to help him washing his cars'.'
But in South Africa witnesses pose their own set of problems. They often have to travel great distances, are unwilling to ask for time off work, and are reluctant to return when cases are remanded again and again. Add to this the fear of intimidation, and it's no wonder that many cases slip through the cracks due to lack of witness evidence. All the same, there are no guarantees. In the case of Percy Masuku, the judge found the witness - a schoolboy - to be unreliable.
Lorentsia: 'I waited for the prosecutor to come out, and then I stood up and then I went behind and asked, 'What am I going to do now?' He said, 'Nothing. It is over. The judge has ruled and there is nothing we can do'.'
Devi: 'So what's happening in our courts? The National Prosecuting Authority is charged with the responsibility of managing the justice process and, according to them, they aren't doing too badly.'
Advocate Mpshe, who is the NPA man in charge of the courts, says their conviction rate in all criminal cases has been steadily improving.
Advocate Mpshe: 'In 2005/2006 we reached 87%.'
This conviction rate refers to all criminal cases, as there has been no comprehensive analysis of convictions done - broken down into types of crime - since 2000. In any one year, approximately 11 000 murder cases get referred to court by the police. About half are rejected by the prosecutors, who deem them not ready for trial. Of the remainder, about 4 000 result in a conviction. Which looks good for the prosecutors, but not when one takes into account that over 18 000 murders are committed each year. So why are almost 50% of the cases being rejected?
Mpshe: 'Investigation sometimes does not meet the mark. We depend entirely on the police.'
In recent high profile murder cases police have been criticised for shoddy detective work and prosecutors have been taken to task for badly prepared cases.
Mpshe: 'We cannot as prosecutors go out and investigate the matter. The best we can do as prosecutors is to get the case docket, peruse the case docket, and direct the investigation. And it goes back to the police to go and check that out.'
Mickey: 'At many times the policeman gets through his work and does what he needs to do and the prosecution can bungle it.'
Devi: 'How does it happen?'
Mickey: 'The prosecution doesn't know how to question the witnesses correctly. They don't know how to question the accused properly.'
Devi: 'Is it because they are inexperienced?'
Mickey: 'That's correct, yes.'
Mpshe: 'In the High Court there is no way that you can put an inexperienced advocate to go and prosecute in the High Court because he must have come through the ranks.'
In the laundry murder case, the judge was critical of both the investigators and the prosecutors.
Charles: 'We are going to sit down with the investigators to have an understanding of where weaknesses may have occurred with respect to this matter. And if indeed there is proof that police didn't do work well, and that this was not picked up by prosecutor in the matter, I will be extremely unhappy.'
The NPA say they have put measures in place to encourage dialogue between investigators and prosecutors. Advocate Mpshe also admits that public prosecutors and other staff at the courts have been found susceptible to bribery and corruption.
Mpshe: 'The national director is passionate about fighting corruption. We have a unit in the NPA called IMU - Integrity Management Unity - where you can call and tell.'
Devi: 'The assumption is that most of these murders can be attributed to violent crimes like hijacking and robbery, but not according to police statistics.'
The police say that about 70% of all murders occur between people who are known to each other. We spoke to Stella, who was convicted for having her husband killed. She is out on parole after serving two thirds of her 25-year sentence.
'Stella' (ex-convict): 'I told these guys how he was abusing me and they knew about that. And I said to them that I want them to go and teach him a lesson. But you know they were pushing me and what they were thinking was to kill him. When time went on I ended up saying yes, kill him.'
In principle, murders between people who are known to each other should be easier to solve, but they aren't necessarily: witnesses may disagree, and forensic evidence may not be available.
Devi: 'It seems we're an extremely violent society.'
Anthony: 'Sociologists, criminologists, armchair pundits like [myself], have a variety of theories why that is. They usually involve things like poverty, like inequality - which is different to poverty, the fact that we have come out of conflict, our attitude towards alcohol, the way we ask people to live crowded into tiny little houses and shacks.'
In Stella's case, many of these factors seem to have played a part in driving her to this crime.
Stella: 'He was drinking like, you know, hot stuff, and he was also smoking dagga. He was abusing me physically and emotionally. Trying to shoot me, stabbed me with a knife.'
Stella's husband made her life so miserable that she has little regret for having killed him, even though she has had to spend most of her adult life behind bars.
Stella: 'It was hell, but at least I was relieved because there was no one who was abusing me like my husband.'
Stella has paid her debt to society. But with a conviction rate of approximately 20%, many murderers are walking free.
Devi: 'Getting back to the low conviction rate. What message does it send out to criminals in this country?'
Mpshe: 'Well, the message that it may send out to them is that they can get away with murder.'
(2005) Shanee Gungudoo and Roshni Govender: Stabbed in Sunnyside Pretoria. Police Feedback: Cell phone recovered, investigation ongoing. (UNSOLVED).
(2000) Warren van Wyk: Shot at home in Primrose. Police Feedback: Under Investigation. (UNSOLVED)
For Law enforcers the objective seems insurmountable. Whether it's nine murders or 18,000, how do we start solving the problem?
Anthony: 'Our per capita murder rate is nearly fifty percent lower than it was at its peak. So, while it is true that we need our system to be producing a lot more convictions and therefore a lot more deterrents, we need to be doing a whole lot of other things also to bring down murder...'
Devi: 'Like what?'
Anthony: '... And I think some of those things we're doing reasonably well. Our decline in murder coincides quite strongly with the very rapid increase in the roll-out of social grants in South Africa.'
Anthony says that as people's lives have been uplifted, so too have the levels of frustration and tension been reduced, with less explosions of violence. The fact remains that the problem is rooted deeply in the core of our society... and it cannot be cured by law enforcement alone.
IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:While every attempt has been made to ensure this transcript or summary is accurate, Carte Blanche or its agents cannot be held liable for any claims arising out of inaccuracies caused by human error or electronic fault. This transcript was typed from a transcription recording unit and not from an original script, so due to the possibility of mishearing and the difficulty, in some cases, of identifying individual speakers, errors cannot be ruled out.
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