South Africa

Maverick Life, South Africa

The Art of Persuasion: Vusi Pikoli’s great new adventure in Zilleland

The Art of Persuasion: Vusi Pikoli’s great new adventure in Zilleland

Former national director of public prosecutions, Advocate Vusi Pikoli, is accustomed to finding himself in heavy-duty political crossfire. In December he relocated to Cape Town to take up a pioneering position as the country’s first police ombudsman. Pikoli is nobody’s fool and is determined to stake out the independence of his office in spite of charges that his appointment is part of some sort of political payback. By MARIANNE THAMM.

For the past few weeks a local radio station has been running adverts for the newly created office of the police ombudsman in the Western Cape, the first of its kind in the country.

The ombud himself, Advocate Vusi Pikoli, has done the friendly voiceovers inviting members of the public to pop in at his offices on the sixth floor of the Waldorf Building just off Greenmarket Square or to call with any complaints or queries. His tone is welcoming, open and accessible, an ethos he hopes to establish in all his inter-sectoral dealings.

Pikoli, who has relocated to the Western Cape from Pretoria, has not yet had the time to ‘brand’ the offices located on the same floor as the clearly marked Western Cape Liquor Board. It is a space still permeated with the odour of new carpets (government grey) and fresh paint while the walls are, as yet, undecorated.

You will notice I don’t have a window,” says the avuncular Pikoli, pulling up a seat at his new, generic boardroom table. Apart from the day’s newspapers, the only other reading matter on his shelves is the thick final report of the Khayelitsha Commission of Enquiry, which he chaired with Justice Kate O’Regan in 2014.

Of course, detractors have already charged that Pikoli’s appointment to the pioneering position, created trough the Western Cape Community Safety Act signed into law in 2013, is a ‘reward’ for his having served on the commission ordered by Western Cape premier Helen Zille.

Former police minister, Nathi Mthethwa, attempted to have the commission declared unconstitutional but failed. He also vowed to challenge the Western Cape Community Safety Act claiming that it sought to make the SAPS “a provincial institution where accountability is determined by different structures as and when it is deemed suitable”.

While policing falls under national government, chapter 11 of the Constitution makes provision for provincial oversight and the facilitation of relations between communities and police.

Commenting in 2013 on the Western Cape Community Safety Act, Professor Jaap de Visser, director of the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape and senior research fellow in the Centre’s Multi-Level Government Initiative, wrote that it was an attempt by the Democratic Alliance-led Western Cape government “to make it clear that it is serious about crime. The question is whether it has gone too far… it may indeed not be comfortable for the provincial commissioner to have to report to the national police commissioner and to the MEC for community safety”.

Pikoli, on the other hand, is not waiting for any court challenges and is energetically getting on with the new job he was appointed to do.

It is Pikoli’s view that his appointment is “political” only so far as his office derives its mandate from the Constitution – “Sections 206 (3) and 206 (5) and then of course from the Western Cape Constitution as well as the Community Safety Act”, he quotes with a broad smile.

And that is where the politics end,” he says emphatically, adding “the office is here to serve all of the people of the Western Cape and, of course will, among other things, seek to make sure that people of are able to realise their rights as enshrined in the Constitution allowing them to live and work in the Western Cape under conditions of safety. I would also want the police to have to have confidence in the office”.

Ultimately he views his position, he says, as “a service to the country.”

The office of the police ombudsman, Pikoli told the Daily Maverick, is independent and he will do everything possible to “insulate it from everyone.”

As soon as it is fully established we have to do our investigations and make our recommendations without fear or favour or political bias. This office will not allow any influence from anybody, whether it is politicians, or family members, or business. It is critical for me to insulate it from anyone. I do not want it to be turned into a political football.”

Pikoli’s term is a fixed, five-year, non-renewable contract. The budget for the office is around R10-million and will increase to R11.4-mllion for the 2015-16 financial year, and R11.8-million for 2016-17.

At present Pikoli has engaged six staff members, including two investigators and a former police officer. He still has two vacancies to fill. The office has already received 37 complaints since opening its doors in January.

Pikoli is no stranger to setting up or pioneering new territory. In 1999, as acting director general in the department of justice, he was involved in the formation of the new DSO to deal with organised crime.

Helen Zille’s recommendation of Pikoli for the position is in many ways a masterstroke. Pikoli, a loyal ANC member, found himself in a political wilderness after his attempts to prosecute former, and now late, commissioner of police, Jackie Selebi as well as Jacob Zuma, who was deputy president at the time, on charges of corruption.

Pikoli’s independence and integrity was confirmed when former national assembly speaker, Frene Ginwala, who was appointed in September 2007 to probe Pikoli’s fitness for office, found that he was indeed “fit and proper”.

While the Khayletisha Commission of Enquiry uncovered disturbing levels of inefficiency and dysfunction in that area’s three or four police stations, Pikoli will now have to work with around 150 stations – many of them badly or under-resourced – and staffed by around 21,000 officers in the province.

His office’s work differs from that of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid), which is tasked solely with investigating alleged criminal conduct by police officials including corruption and police brutality.

Relations between the country’s citizens and the South African Police Service (SAPS) are at an all-time low and survey after survey shows deepening distrust. A futurefact study released this month found that three quarters of South Africans say they believe police are criminal and are afraid to report crime to police.

In these circumstances then it will be interesting to see whether Pikoli’s office will have any impact fostering better relationships between citizens and the police in the long run and whether this will have any impact on crime and policing in the region.

He has spent his first two months in office meeting with a wide range of players from regional police commissioners to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to members of the judiciary and the public protector’s office. Most importantly, Pikoli hopes to be meeting soon with members of the province’s community policing forums – a key link in the chain – in order to facilitate and promote better relations.

He is also hoping that rather that being reactive, his office can be proactive, encouraging police to co-operate and work with his office rather than against it.

In this regard, the ombud’s powers are rather limited other than providing a focal point for citizens to find a one-stop office to deal with complaints and to dispatch staff to investigate these on their behalf. He is also able to make recommendations to set up a commission of inquiry where necessary.

Practically the ombud’s office will be able to investigate complaints such as a non-responsive police office or officers, late dispatches of vehicles to call-outs, the continual postponement of court cases due to police inefficiency as well as the perennial problem of “disappearing dockets”, a major stumbling block in the administration of justice. Pikoli also intends to chase up delays in the SAPS forensic laboratories, which often leads to many cases being struck off the roll.

These are major frustrations in many communities and having someone to complain to or who is sympathetic will most certainly impact on the provision of policing services.

Pikoli intends to go on a roadshow of the province, including outlying areas such as George, Outshoorn, and others to inform the public and police of services his office offers.

The mere fact that the public will now have an independent avenue to investigate complaints will also perhaps provide an incentive for police to be more responsive and to realise that someone is looking over their shoulder and that they will be held to account.

Pikoli says after having given interviews on radio stations he has received calls from residents of other provinces asking for help but he is unable to oblige. The fact that he was contacted points to the fact that it might be a good idea to establish offices in other ANC-ruled provinces, although this is unlikely at this stage.

Pikoli laughs that he is ragged by some ANC comrades and asked, “So, have you joined the DA?” However, speaking to the Daily Maverick this week he accidentally revealed his political DNA by referring at some point to rights enshrined in the “The Freedom Charter” when he meant to say the Constitution. Who can blame him as everyone has dusted off the document to celebrate its 60th anniversary this year?

In that sense, Pikoli joins a growing number of ANC members and professionals who now find themselves, by virtue of their geographical location, working for a DA-controlled province. It is a mark of maturity, he says, to be able to do so while committing oneself, rather than playing politics, to matters of service delivery, which is, after all, what policing and governing is all about.

Pikoli is enough of his own man, having survived – albeit sans his job – the bruising leadership battle between Thabo Mbeki and Zuma and which spilled over into the party and resulted in many political casualties. He remains always, he said, “an activist” and plans in the next five years to turn his office into a persuasive force – or rather agent – for positive change. DM

Photo: Vusi Pikoli in his new office (Marianne Thamm)

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