Skip to main content

WC Police Commissioner Yolisa Matakata is no crime fighter

On Monday, after frustrating attempts to communicate with incoming Western Cape Police Commissioner Lt-Gen. Yolisa Matakata's office, I emailed her front-of-office person Mr J Jacob, “Gen. Matakata, purportedly brought in as a new broom, has no control over her office”.

The reason for this outburst is on January 7 I sent her a letter complaining about Woodstock detectives' refusal to open criminal charges of corruption against officers of the Health Professions Council including a medical board member, Elmin Steyn, Stellenbosch and Tygerberg Hospital head of surgery. The alleged conduct meets the requirements of corrupt activities under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act.

(I notified the HPCSA's CEO/registrar Dr Raymond Billa mid-2019 there was a possibility of corrupt activities but he did nothing and didn't report it to the police as the Act requires. The SIU is investigating the HPCSA for bribery for medical licences. Ironically, the HPCSA, SIU, SAPS and NPA are members of the recently formed Health Sector Anti-Corruption Forum.)

On October 28 Woodstock Police Station reluctantly accepted my affidavit after an hour pleading and cajoling. Two months before another station had declined. That week detective Warrant Officer Smith phoned and said they had requested Cape Town's Director of Public Prosecutions for a meeting regarding the case number.

But in an emailed letter to me on January 7, the DPP denied SAPS had had any discussions with or they had received requests. (I had separately informed the DPP about the corruption complaint because of my experience with the police. And the present complaint is indirectly related to an open inquest case regarding my late mother's death at Groote Schuur Hospital in 2017. The DPP referred me to SAPS as the first port of call.)

In December I emailed the office of the outgoing commissioner about Woodstock, i.e. I still no case number and there was no response from the detectives. There was no response.

So when I heard of the alleged no nonsense Matakata's appointment, I had a small hope she, or more accurately, her staff would be imbued with the same sense of purpose the media, including Sunday Times’ article on January 19, attribute to her.

Instead my phone conversation with Jacobs Monday (he doesn't forward emails) and another officer show the police, including at the top, have the familiar ineptitude, lethargy and reluctance to obey the law they've always had.

It appears despite my complaint about Woodstock been clearly stated, they chose to misunderstand, confuse things further and do nothing. Either they don't understand English, or as I wrote Jacobs, "It concerns me SAPS thinks the public, and me in this case, incapable of logical thought".

Since the corruption complaint indirectly relates to the inquest the Cape Town Inquest Magistrate Court is yet to review, in effect SAPS’ – Woodstock and commissioner’s office – refusal or inability to open a case in effect is obstruction of justice and denies the public their legal right to open cases. I told Jacobs so. There was no response.

A former policeman turned private investigator told me, "I have work because my former colleagues are so incompetent".

The Western Cape public mustn't expect anything different from Matakata. Perhaps she is better personally than her predecessor and colleagues. But my and public’s experiences show the police is fatally compromised.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Health Professions Council protects 'euthanasia' doctors

The Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) has doubled down to protect Groote Schuur Hospital doctors accused of the unauthorised removal of a patient's life support that resulted in death (euthanasia) and hospital and Western Cape Health Department administrators who covered it up.  As I related in a previous  post , on 31 May 2019 the HPCSA's Third Medical Committee of Preliminary Inquiry (committee) exonerated doctors Ahmed Al Sayari, Marcelle Crowther and Mikhail Botha and Trauma Centre head Prof. Andrew Nicol, CEO Bhavna Patel and WCHD head Dr Beth Engelbrecht.  I requested the committee's rationale and doctors' responses but despite promising to do so, they only sent the responses excluding Nicol's second statement (2019) which they refuse to.   The committee and CEO/registrar Dr Raymond Billa, who nominally investigates the public's complaints and assured me they're an "advocate for the public", cleared the doctors based ...

Western Cape Health has no jurisdiction over its doctors, senior official claims

On Wednesday June 1, Western Cape Health Department's (WCHD) officer Dr Saadiq Kariem was interviewed on CapeTalk about access to chronic medications for WCHD patients. He spoke of two options: collection at a department facility or delivery to their homes. He made it sound so easy. He didn't mention, though, that at many community health clinics aka day hospitals there's a wait, often hours, to simply collect medicines even when clinics already have patients' current scripts on file. I myself tried that - the first time and last time I'd been to a clinic for collection - but left after two hours without even being attended to. I buy my meds which fortunately are not the expensive kind. People cannot take off hours every month merely to collect meds but the poor have no alternative. I gather problems may be clinic specific. On a related matter, during an after hours phone call that weekend, Groote Schuur Hospital's chief operating officer Dr Belinda Jacobs told ...

The racial composition of Groote Schuur Hospital's patients and staffs

 This piece is about the racial composition of Groote Schuur Hospital’s patients and staffs. It was determined over numerous visits to its outpatients departments (OPD) and an in-patient ward. Direct observation is the primary method of research data gathering. Groote Schuur is one of Cape Town's two major teaching hospitals, the other is Tygerberg in Bellville. There are secondary facilities in the metro too. Patients are referred to Groote Schuur from all over the city and Western Cape. It is attached to the University of Cape Town's Medical School. It has the full range of specialist departments and facilities. It is the only public hospital in South Africa to have the Da Vinci Robotic Machine, one of a few in the country.  The hospital falls under the Western Cape Health Department (WCHD) whose head is Dr Keith Cloete (2020 to present). Dr Bhavna Patel is CEO and Dr Belinda Jacobs is manager: medical services (COO). The Western Cape has 5.5 million people and Cape Town met...