THE FACTS
Makgalema Thobela from Atok, Gasekhukhune, Limpopo said he was arrested in May 2015 and charged with public violence due to a community march that turned violent.
He went to court and his charge was withdrawn in November of that year. In 2016, he applied for work at the Department of Home Affairs and when his criminal record was checked, it was found that he still had a pending case.
He got a copy of his docket showing that the charge had been withdrawn. Her provided this document to Home Affairs and he was appointed to the post.
The problem is his police clearance certificate shows he has never been convicted of a crime but whenever a security check is done it shows that he is still on trial for public violence.
He went to the police station and was told that the SAP69 has to be filed and sent to the Local Clearance Record Centre, but to date that has not been done by the investigating officer. He wanted to know if there was anything else that he could do in order to clear his record.
WHAT I DID
The complaint was sent to Scorpion Legal Protection to find out how they assist their clients in those situations.
SOLUTION
The professional Legal Advisor at Scorpion stated that in a criminal cases, once the warning statement and finger prints of the accused have been taken, the system shows that the person has a pending case against them until such a time that the case is finalised.
To clear this in cases where the charge has been withdrawn, Scorpion advise its clients to request that the Investigating Officer prepare the SAP69 and the client must take the SAP69 and files it at the Local Clearance Record Centre himself. The reason that it may be better for the person to take the SAP69 himself.
This because the police have a high workload and usually wait for the SAP69s to accumulate and then take them all in at the same time. If the investigating officer is not willing to help then a complaint against him must be lodged with the station commander at the police station.
