Killer cops in South Africa

Yolandi Groenewald:

Colleagues and families are increasingly the targets of stressed of police members, a psychologist said recently. Christine Jordaan, who has treated more than 900 police members for post-traumatic stress disorder, also warned that this week’s incidents, in which two policemen went on killing sprees that resulted in 11 deaths, could spark a “suicide epidemic”.

“They are telling me: ‘I am going to shoot that donner [bastard],’” she said. “Or they say my wife does not understand me -- I want to kill her. And this is not just one or two policemen that are saying this.”

Recently, Kagiso Superintendent Chippa Mateane went on a shooting spree, killing eight people, including four colleagues, his girlfriend and a toddler. Before he was shot dead by police, Mateane also wounded his brother.

Less than 48 hours later, another policeman shot dead his girlfriend -- also a police member -- before turning the gun on himself at his home in Johannesburg.

Early in 2003 the South African Police Service said it was an accepted fact that South Africa had the highest incidence of suicide among police officers worldwide.

Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula revealed last year that 506 police members had killed themselves during the past six years; 58 in 2005. In March last year the minister added that police officers who killed themselves had used service firearms in 79% of suicides in the past two years.

This week, Jordaan said police statistics “did not take into consideration that many policemen deliberately put themselves in harm’s way to insure that their widows would have insurance paid out to them”.

But, increasingly, there are no widows left behind. Nqakula’s statistics showed that in 19% of police suicides, murder or attempted murder had occurred beforehand. In 47%, the suicide also involved the death of a family member or partner.

Last year, Western Cape safety minister Leonard Ramatlakane, speaking at the opening of a new police station in Langa, said it was believed that most police suicides were prompted by domestic issues.

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