Corruption Watch to find out more about City’s new ‘plan’

Corruption Watch is set to meet with the City of Joburg next week to find out more about its plans to fight the culture of bribery and corruption among the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) officers.

Three months after the civil society organisation launched the “No more tjo-tjo” campaign, the City of Joburg has unveiled new measures to counter corruption and rebuild public confidence.

The new plans seem to address some of the issues raised in the Corruption Watch report titled “The Law for Sale”, which details high levels of bribery in the JMPD. However, it is unclear if and how the City will take action against traffic officers who do not wear visible identification while on duty – one of the recommendations made when Corruption Watch met with the City Manager, Trevor Fowler, in April.

The Corruption Watch report included a set of five recommendations to the City of Joburg and JMPD. It also argued against the JMPD’s stance that only a few bad officers were corrupt, a claim which stood in direct contrast with the voices of motorists reporting common encounters with JMPD officers who demanded bribes instead of enforcing the law.

Corruption Watch executive director David Lewis said action to curb the high levels of corruption in the JMPD rather than denial was most welcome: “If the JMPD is now taking this matter seriously, all credit should go to the motorists who were willing to speak out and whose voices were recorded in the report that was submitted to the City.”

The meeting between Corruption Watch and the City will provide more insight on what further actions will be taken on the five recommendations made to the City and JMPD.

The recommendations are:

1. The JMPD and the Metro begin to acknowledge the scale and depth of corruption in the JMPD.

2. JMPD officers be required to wear identification whenever they are on duty and that failure to do so should be grounds for summary dismissal.

3. The ability of the public and JMPD officers to report corruption in the JMPD be strengthened and that a reporting system be set up independent of the JMPD.

4. Field integrity testing be instituted as a mechanism for detecting corruption.

5. Metro Mayor leads a campaign directed at members of the public and the JMPD reminding them that bribery is a criminal offence.

For more information:

Bongi Mlangeni

Head of communications

Office: 011 447 1472

Mobile: 076 862 9086

View this press release as a PDF here.