Cape Smear

Episode 215614631 of the Western Cape cop drama [View this email in your browser]( June 9, 2021 [Mail & Guardian]( [Mail & Guardian]( [Twitter]( [Facebook]( [Instagram]( [YouTube]( Hi there, Jeremy Vearey is not funemployed. Vearey was dismissed as the head of the detective service in the Western Cape, after an “expeditious” procedure that found him guilty of bringing the South African Police Service (SAPS) into disrepute through a series of social media posts [allegedly impugning national commissioner Khehla Sitole](. In a decision dated 27 May, Eastern Cape provincial police commissioner Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga, who chaired the process, concluded in a 14-page finding that anything short of dismissal would amount to condoning Vearey’s conduct. Vearey was charged with bringing the police service into disrepute in eight Facebook posts between December 2020 and February 2021 containing links to media reports. Most of these referred to disciplinary charges against former crime intelligence boss, Peter Jacobs. But because South Africa is alive with possibilities, there’s more to this than a guy talking smack online about his boss. It all begins with a guns-for-gangsters probe, also known as Project Impi. Vearey and Jacobs, who used to head crime intelligence in the province, had initially driven the probe. What began as a Western Cape-based investigation in December 2013, grew in scope to become a national probe. It included looking into cops issuing fraudulent gun licences; firearms being stockpiled for possible use against the state; cross-border gunrunning; and, most notably, firearms meant to have been destroyed or safeguarded by the police being sold to gangsters. In January 2015, Project Impi nicked a big one in the form of police colonel Chris Prinsloo. He entered into a plea bargain in June 2016 and was sentenced to 18 years in jail. After opening a storeroom in Germiston Prinsloo had, according to his own confession, sold about 2 000 guns to Cape Town businessman Irshaad Laher, instead of having them destroyed. He has since turned state witness. In June 2016, Vearey and Jacobs were effectively demoted when they were removed from the investigation and transferred to different posts. Like Jacobs, Vearey is a former member of Umkhonto weSizwe. The two approached the labour court to have their transfers reversed, arguing that, by removing them, the probe was left in disarray. The labour court ruled in Vearey and Jacobs’ favour in August 2017. But for months afterwards, they remained in the positions to which they felt they had been demoted. Only after Cyril Ramaphosa took over as head of state in February 2018 did this change. Jacobs went on to become crime intelligence chief, but was served with a suspension notice in November last year and in March was transferred by Sitole to the Police Inspectorate. He had this time successfully turned to the Johannesburg labour court to halt a disciplinary process, claiming that his suspension was linked to protected disclosures he made against senior police officers. Vearey and Jacobs also noted that, despite the importance of Project Impi, police bosses had reduced resources available to it, leaving the police vulnerable to civil claims. “They had been in possession of thousands of firearms which they were supposed to destroy. Instead, they were released to gangs who were killing many members of the public with them,” Vearey stated. According to Vearey’s 2016 labour court affidavit, the smuggled firearms were linked to 1 666 murders, 1 403 attempted murders and 261 children being shot in Cape gang hotspots between 2010 and 2016. Now a group of NGOs, co-ordinated by Gun Free South Africa, is working on a class action lawsuit that could see families of victims shot with firearms that were smuggled from cops to crooks take on the police service and its bosses in court. Vearey, in a statement after his recent dismissal, referred to the issue of cops smuggling firearms, as well as other corruption he claims has been uncovered within the service. He was speaking as “Jeremy Vearey who has been dismissed from the South African Police Service” in response to an SAPS statement issued about his dismissal on behalf of Sitole. Although his dismissal had been dealt with speedily, Vearey said, police bosses were not as enthused about tackling critical issues affecting the country. This isn’t even the whole story, merely a facet of the fractures bedevilling the police service in one province. The mounting claims against and among members of the police service are direct blows to the country’s deeply broken relationship with the police and the security cluster as a whole. While statements and claims fly, civilians are dealing with the extant violence of gang warfare. Can we really rely on our gutted security cluster to carry out its mandate? Until tomorrow, Kiri Rupiah & Luke Feltham [Subscribe now]( Enjoy The Ampersand? Share it with your friends [Share]( [Share]( [Tweet]( [Tweet]( [Forward]( [Forward]( [Share]( [Share]( Copyright © 2021 Mail & Guardian Media LTD, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive communications from the Mail & Guardian either at our website or by taking out a print subscription. Our mailing address is: Mail & Guardian Media LTD 25 Owl St BraamfonteinJohannesburg, Gauteng 2001 South Africa [Add us to your address book]( Want to change how you receive these emails? 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