The Police Should Not Be A Law Unto Themselves
By: TSUDAO GURIRAB
DURING the dark lawless days before independence, the police were probably the most feared, but hardly respected, agents of the state. For the most part, they operated outside the law, played God and thus held the fate of suspects in their hands.
They regarded the courts as a nuisance and thus avoided them. The new order heralded in by our country’s Constitution was to consign this lawlessness and scant regard for due process to the dustbin.
The death, last week, of Mandela Ramakhutla in Windhoek Central Hospital’s ICU must, therefore, be of grave concern to all of us. This is because the police of our country must, at all times, be friends of the communities where they work and labour to protect our limb and property. They cannot and must not become the reincarnation of the beasts who masqueraded as police in the dark days of apartheid, when the citizens of this country were bereft of all their rights.
It is a matter of public record that our health system faces a mountain of challenges but Mandela’s death last week does not appear to be on account of negligence or incompetence on the part of our much-maligned doctors and nurses. On the contrary, it would seem that his injuries were of such a nature that his life could, unfortunately, not be saved.
It is true that the Namibian Police Act ( Act no.19 of 1990), as amended, permits the police to use “such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime or in effecting or assisting lawful arrest of an offender or suspected offender...” . But whilst we all await the post-mortem, even Superintendent Helena Mootseng of Windhoek City Police would grant that in an instance like the one under consideration the fatality was avoidable. The investigation of the actions in this tragedy needs to be speedily concluded in order to restore some measure of public confidence in the generally battered image of our police. It is, of course, inevitable to draw the conclusion that the very action to suspend the officers involved was only triggered by this tragic death.
If the Caprivi treason trial has taught us anything, then it is the overzealous, if criminal, conduct of the police in their interrogation of suspects. Remember the beatings Geoffrey Mwilima, for example, took at the hands of the police with him having to end up in a military hospital?
Reassuringly, our courts have served notice, at the same time, that they will always take a dim view of torture and other inhumane treatment of suspects. Namibia will be a better country if the suspended officers, following the death of the young Mandela, and their colleagues generally, internalise these lessons.
At the time where incidence of crime envelops the country, the police and the communities need to take hands against this rising tide instead of worsening it. But in an environment where police brutalise citizens or where more than 200 police officers are discharged from duty – as happened in the first half of last year – for misconduct, indiscipline or collaborating with criminal syndicates, our communities may soon resort to mob justice.
But all is not lost if only the police high command use the Namibian Police Act as the fundamental guide, as the alpha and omega not only in training but in the daily conduct and operations of the police. The Act clearly spells out not only the powers of the police but also their functions. It also deals with matters of discipline in the event of transgressions. The management of the police must ensure that these are enforced consistently and scrupulously.
Better training and lawful conduct should substitute the insidious and criminal conduct on the part of the police. And acting as professionals and not gangsters, our police force will be better, will be different and will not need to thrive on a culture of lawlessness.
And to be sure, why should Namibians – all Namibians – not expect human rights based culture from our police? Namibians should, as of right, demand and expect that no deaths occur in police cells or during arrests of suspects. Namibians should also demand and expect that only the courts of our country determine the guilt or otherwise of all suspects.
Anything short of that reduces us to a police state and we should never again go there. In the end, it is only by reaffirming the rights of all that our Constitution becomes a living document.