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Dismay at Radebe’s ‘staggering’ crime boast

CAPE TOWN — Despite police recording more than 45000 "trio crimes" in 2009-10, Justice Minister Jeff Radebe yesterday revealed that only 276 such cases had been finalised.

However, his claim of a "staggering" conviction rate of 86,6% was derided by the opposition as representing less than 1% of incidents of that category of crime.

Trio crimes — armed robberies at homes and businesses and carjackings — are those that frighten South Africans the most as they are often accompanied by violence and sometimes murder. The small number of finalised cases and the claims of a very high conviction rate will raise doubts about the government’s claim that the police and the justice system are getting the upperhand in the fight against crime.

The 2009-10 annual report of the South African Police Service revealed there were 18786 robberies at residential premises and 5458 arrests, 13902 carjackings and 2352 arrests and 14534 robberies at business premises with 3342 arrests.

Mr Radebe, briefing the media on the justice, crime prevention and security cluster of government departments, said: "We have set a target to increase the trio crime detection rate from 13,5% to 34% by 2014. A 24% increase in the finalisation of trio crime cases was achieved in 2010. Of the 276 trio crime cases that were finalised, 239 resulted in convictions, translating into a staggering 86,6% conviction rate."

Asked how such a high rate could be claimed when 239 convictions were obtained from tens of thousands of reported cases, Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa said the statistics showed "inroads are being made" through working tougher and smarter.

Newly appointed chief government spokesman Jimmy Manyi said that 86,6% was obtained by measuring the convictions against the cases finalised.

Democratic Alliance police spokeswoman Dianne Kohler Barnard was enraged by the comments, saying, "How dare they hold a briefing to announce such a spectacular failure?

"It is a national embarrassment that they cannot even successfully prosecute those cases that they cherry pick. The 239 cases prosecuted makes up less than 1% of the total number of trio crimes. They should hang their heads in shame."

Mr Radebe also faced aggressive questioning about the reported remarks of National Director of Public Prosecutions Menzi Simelane that honeymoon murder accused Shrien Dewani was guilty of murdering his wife Anni, as reported in the weekend press. He was asked what would be done if Mr Simelane’s statements, coupled with those of police commissioner Bheki Cele that "a monkey" had come to SA to kill his wife, resulted in the British authorities refusing to extradite Mr Dewani.

Mr Radebe said SA was a constitutional democracy with an independent judiciary. He repeated an earlier assurance that Mr Dewani would receive a fair trial. He said statements outside court, whether from Gen Cele, Mr Simelane or Mr Dewani’s spin doctor Max Clifford, were "irrelevant". "Let’s wait until extradition proceedings have been completed."

He insisted the reason SA had filed for extradition was because it was believed Mr Dewani had a case to answer. He said he was confident the extradition proceedings in Britain would be favourable to SA’s application.

Comments from Mr Cele and Mr Simelane were "neither here nor there" because the National Prosecuting Authority still had to prove its case in court.

This article applies to: Middle, Rontree 1, Rontree 2, Glen, Bakoven, Village, Clifton, CPF