Nor is it correct! We laid charges and two years down the line the SAPS still find it impossible to investigate them. The Minister will find a question from me in his in-box about this matter. I could show this new Minister footage of Andries Tatane being murdered as SAPS members shot him at point blank range on TV live, or Mido Macia being dragged off to his death.
But I could equally take this Minister to pearls of perfection scattered about the country, where the police are admired and supported by the locals, who in turn are cared for by them in the way in which we thought police should work when we changed them from a force to a service.
They have managed to hold on to that which we admire in the SAPS, despite the second - fired - National Planning Commissioner militarising the entire structure just so that he could be called "General".
I must point out that this title of "General" is one he bizarrely demands to be called still today, when he was stripped of both the title and everything that went with it when he was fired. He isn't a general, and has no right to use that title, even in The New Age newspaper.
I could tell the Minister the tale of Richard Mdluli and his suspension, and the suspension of the next acting head of CI once he pressed charges against the current NPC and her close confidant, the police commissioner of the Western Cape, after she was allegedly recorded warning him he was under investigation.
The latest head of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate is investigating this very matter and as such I have every confidence it will be swept under the carpet.
There are only two original members of the Police portfolio committee left and, along with her, I voted for the current chair when he took over as the head of the ICD, now the Ipid. I do trust the man and I'm sure one day the truth of why he resigned on the day of the Marikana massacre will emerge.
That massacre, and who will be the scapegoat for it, has been much in the news. I'm sure the lessons the new Minister will learn from the commission as we all watch the former Minister wriggle like a fish on a hook trying with all his might to justify his actions while convincing his accusers that he is in no way to blame, will guide him when he lies awake at night, wondering which way to jump.
By now the new Minister will have learned that we have 1 448 convicted criminals in the SAPS. One of them is a Major General, 10 are Brigadiers, 21 are Colonels, 10 are Majors, 43 are Lt Colonels, 163 are Captains, 84 are Lieutenants, 716 are Warrant Officers, 267 are Sergeants, 129 are Constables and 4 are staff. Nearly all of them have been promoted up the ranks despite their being murderers and rapists. Most of them work in the Eastern Cape, but 64 of them work in the SAPS Head Office. There are probably many more criminals in the ranks, but the audit was inexplicably stopped at the end of 2010.
Chairperson, it seems, having finally admitted to this criminality, it would have been easy to simply apply the SAPS Act and boot them out, but the NPC and her staff blundered these affairs, so the unions could stop the firing of this evil bunch of criminals in our midst.
I could introduce the new Minister to outstanding police members in every single province, police members who would take a bullet for either of us, but, equally, I could point out the fault lines, where the failings are many, relentlessly highlighted in the committee report.
Chair, I could explain to the new Minister how South Africans don't believe a word of what was said during the annual release of the crime statistics circus, especially as the figures were fiddled so amateurishly last year by his predecessor.
The sad truth is that there are thousands of disillusioned SAPS members who have achieved extraordinary things, but have never been promoted. The logically progressive career paths ... [Interjections.]