How Criminal Cops Escape Justice

CCTV footage shows police officers repeatedly assaulting a Mowbray barber, Juma Igiranieza. Yet, two years later Delmore Manuel, Jermaine Conradie, and Leigh-Ann Maroon – some of the officers involved – have not only escaped justice, they remain on active duty.

There is no reasonable doubt about what happened on 7 November 2023. The video footage is clear. The officers tortured him to try to find out the whereabouts of his boss. Igiranieza was not wanted for any crime. In any case, torture is illegal and ineffective in policing.

There has been no suggestion that Igiranieza was wanted for any crime, but even torturing mass murderers is both illegal and grossly incompetent policing.

In a just society, Manuel, Conradie and Maroon would have been immediately suspended and arrested. They would soon thereafter have been dismissed, prosecuted and given custodial sentences. They should not be police officers. They should have gone to prison. The incident should have sparked huge public outrage and an inquiry into police brutality. IPID should have conducted a swift investigation and made damning findings. (Also, there are several officers visible in the video, so why have only three been charged?)

Instead, the three cops remain on active duty; the worst punishment any of them received was a final written warning. And last week the case against them, which had dragged on needlessly with postponement upon postponement, was provisionally withdrawn because an interpreter had not been found for Igiranieza. Moreover Igiranieza did not make it to court. He told us that he is now living in the Eastern Cape and was given short notice to get to Cape Town. He nevertheless made the effort and arrived after the magistrate had thrown the matter out.

In any case, the evidence is so clear that a competent prosecutor should be easily able to obtain a conviction with or without Igiranieza being present in court.

All this is despite erstwhile police minister Bheki Cele promising swift action would be taken.

It gets worse though. Obviously it was extremely fortuitous that this particular assault was caught on CCTV. There is every reason to believe that this kind of brutal incompetent policing is routine. On the same day in the same area Ugochukwu Emmanuel Nnoli was also badly assaulted by police officers. He was admitted to Groote Schuur Hospital. Three months later he died. His family believe that it was due to injuries he sustained in the assault. We will never know because the police have never investigated the case.

Ugochukwu Emmanuel Nnoli was assaulted by police in November 2023. He died in February 2024 in hospital. He had been complaining of abdominal pain and headaches since the assault.

Meanwhile, nearly weekly the Madlanga Commission exposes more shameful and scandalous behaviour by the top police in the country.

Journalist Daneel Knoetze of Viewfinder has systematically shown how violent police almost always escape meaningful sanction. He has exposed how hopeless IPID has been at holding SAPS to account.

We have come to accept police incompetence, brutality and corruption. The primary purpose of most police stations now is to rubber stamp affidavits and issue case numbers for insurance claims.

But in a country with over 25,000 homicides annually, we cannot afford to become numb. We desperately need leadership that is capable of restoring public confidence in our police.

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