In my role as a security professional or, more specifically, an investigations consultant, I suppose I have, to a certain degree, developed a fairly healthy level of cynicism and mistrust. Hell, do you blame me? I mean, my company through our very nature of business, confirms on a daily basis just how far our moral fibre has entwined and knotted itself. I’m not just referring to society as a whole but, more specifically, to those who are charged with the responsibility of preventing this decline …. our police force!
It would be completely naïve and foolish of me to believe that our police force (or any other country’s for that matter) is beyond corruption. But to these levels …..? I must ask, ‘ What has become of our police force?’
Quite simply, it is corrupt to the core! To the highest level! Two, not one, TWO consecutive National Police Commissioners have been accused of corrupt dealings, the first found guilty by the courts, the second currently on suspension pending further investigation. Forgive me, but this sounds like a scene from a Columbian underworld film. And, all the while, the government pleads for support for the police, our crime lines offer anonymity and the spin doctors tell us that crime is in a decline …. you decide.
Just as I think I have heard it all, I open the Mail & Guardian (November 11 – 17, 2011 edition) with the headline “Top Cop Fails Polygraph Test Twice”! In short, the article details show Senior Crime Intelligence Co-ordinator, Major General Mark Hankel, had twice returned deceptive results on his pre-employment polygraph test conducted by the SAP Polygraph Unit itself! This was in 2002 and, at the time, police polygraph expert, Lieutenant Colonel Josiah Maponyane was “pressured” into creating an inconclusive finding. As a result, Hankel keeps his security clearance. Interestingly, the failed test question was, “During the past five years have you committed a serious crime?” The instruction to “clear” Hankel came directly from the then head of the polygraph unit, Superintendent Hein Allers.
As it turns out, Hankel appears to have been a close ally of currently suspended Crime Intelligence boss, Richard Mduli. Surprise, surprise, he too has been arrested … for what? Well, murder! It is believed that he used the Crime Intelligence Division to monitor those investigating him.
It is not at all surprising that society has lost confidence in the South African Police Service. It is also no coincidence that the private security industry is fast becoming the preferred
choice of average South Africans when it comes down to honest and professional investigations and protection requirements.
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