I WAS always the first to defend the police when people talked about how useless they were and never there when needed.
This was until my personal experience with them on Tuesday morning, says Daily Sun reporter Zamokuhle Mdluli.
I had just come across a man’s burning body under a tree in a park not far from the University of Joburg’s Kingsway campus in Auckland Park. When I arrived at the scene it was just after 7am.
The body was burnt beyond recognition, with the intestines hanging out and 4-5 exposed.
There were students I found at the scene and they told me they had been calling Brixton police for ages without any luck.
Being a journalist, I thought it would make a difference if I called them. Well, that didn’t help either.
I drove to the cop shop. The officer on duty told me he had already sent a team to the scene.
“Thank you for your concern,” he said as I rushed back to the scene. When I got back it was 8.20am and cops were not there.
An hour later, I decided to call Gauteng police spokesman Captain Mavela Masondo.
He called Brixton police and he was told the cops were at the scene.
Masondo verified this with me, only to learn that they were not.
He called them again and again.
Just after 10am, two ill-equipped officers finally arrived.
They did not even have crime-scene tape to seal the area with.
Only on arrival of the armed response unit, before the cops, was tape used to cordon off the scene, and firefighters were called as the body was still burning.
I left to attend to another story. On my way back at about 12.15pm, out of curiosity, I went back to the scene. The body was still lying there, uncovered!
A shocked Mthunzi Ndima said: “Cops do not give two hoots about their job. They are there only for the money.”
Masondo told Daily Sun: “An inquest docket has been opened for investigation. The body has not been identified yet.”
