Feuding police ‘compromise airport security’

VENDETTAS, spying and smear campaigns are said to be detracting from crime- fighting at OR Tambo International Airport, the busiest on the continent and the air transport hub of southern Africa.

Interviews with senior policemen and, recently, court files opposing the removal of 11 lieutenant- colonels from the airport show that battles between different units operating there have dragged on for more than three years.

Internal grievance memos reveal that the border policing component of the SAPS Operational Response Services unit has been engulfed in conflict involving operational commanders and their managers, and investigations of one another which have yielded not a single conviction.

Officers told the Weekend Argus’ sister title The Saturday Star that the situation at the major key point was undermining efforts to fight crime, and having a negative affect on staff morale.

Police management, however, flatly denied this. “The memo is part of the grievances lodged by the colonels, being attended to by management,” said spokesman Lieutenant-General Solomon Makgale.

“Currently, everyone is hard at work at the airport… No negative impact has been experienced or reported to management.”

But officers said that a task team set up to investigate colleagues had made more than 30 arrests, none of which had resulted in a conviction in the courts, or an internal sanction.

They cited a 2008 robbery at one of the airport stores where R3 million in cash was stolen. The case was investigated internally, but no arrests were made. The same was true of a breakin last year in which R20m in drugs and cash was stolen.

“Members of other sectors are removed and held responsible for transgressions, but those who work at the SAPS store remain in their positions despite serious losses,” said one commander who would not be named.

“Instead, what you have is a task team of detectives trawling for dirt on colleagues and arresting them with no evidence, which results in most of their cases being thrown out of court, or not even reaching the courts.”

Makgale denied this too, saying that investigations into the airport robberies were ongoing, with at least one at a “sensitive stage”.

He said arrests and/or suspensions would happen only when the investigations were concluded, adding that the investigating team consisted of detectives from Gauteng and crime intelligence.

“There is no such team that is meant to investigate colleagues. However, there are three groups of detectives: one investigating general crimes, the other drug-related cases and the last focusing on priority crime… “

In June the Labour Court reversed a decision by Divisional Commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela to transfer 11 lieutenant- colonels from the airport.

Makgale said specialised units like the Special Task Force, NIU and/or Tactical Reaction Team (TRT) had roles to play at the airport.

“Currently TRT Gauteng is operating at the airport daily for specific operations. The possible transfer of the lieutenantcolonels did not produce any explosive situation.”

The SA Police Union, which challenged the transfer of the 11 in the Labour Court, warned police management not to play with fire.

The international airport was a national key point, union general secretary Oscar Skommere said. “To play politics with it will compromise national security.”

The conflict at the unit stems from challenges to promotions by some lieutenant-colonels, who raised questions especially about officers who jumped ranks from captain to lieutenant-colonel.

The lieutenant- colonels also claimed that, as a result of their soured relations with the station commander, some operations under their command had been halted. These included stop-and-searches around the airport, which were designed to address a spate of robberies of travellers followed home from the airport.

But Makgale countered that it was difficult to see how, when people were robbed at their homes and/or in hotel lobbies, the situation could be “curbed by conducting a roadblock”.

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