Deputy Speaker, could the Minister explain to this House why it is that cases against members of SAPS are kept out of the public eye, when transparency in this sort of unutterably distasteful case is called for, with SAPS proving to the citizens of this country that they deal harshly with transgressions of the law on the part of their members?
Is it perhaps that in instances the punishment in relation to an infraction by SAPS members so seldom seems commensurate with the initial action? For example, when two Volksrust officers locked a female into an all-male cell where she was gang-raped, they were told not to do it again for six months, after which it would be expunged from their records. They face no loss of income, no demotion - in fact, nothing at all. Surely, this lack of firm action not only undermines the morale of the good cops, but also discourages people from co-operating with the police.