Hawks turn to former cops in their quest to investigate old apartheid crimes

First published in Daily Maverick 168

They might be sporting a couple of grey hairs and perhaps they are not as fast as they used to be, but these cops could soon be injecting new life into old apartheid crime investigations.

The Hawks, for the first time, have called on former police officials to rejoin the service, so as to bolster their investigative capacity. Last month, 200 jobs were advertised within the Hawks, which were open to former members of the SAPS.

Spokesperson for the Hawks Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi explained that the 200 posts were across various departments within the crime fighting organisation. Some of the jobs, however, were to investigate crimes identified by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

One post advertised is for a chief investigator at the level of a brigadier.  

The successful applicant would sign on to a three-year contract. The vacancies were not open to those over retirement age.

“These posts were advertised in September, so some of them might even have started work by now,” says Mulaudzi.  

These investigators will be tackling cases that stretch back decades, and in some cases they will be investigating murders where no bodies were ever found.

Cold cases have a reputation of being hard to crack, but as what was shown with the Ahmed Timol case, alleged perpetrators can be charged and even though years have passed, they can still end up in the dock.  

“Well, it’s not rocket science. It is easy to solve these cases, it’s just a matter of putting things together,” says one former SAPS investigator, who preferred not to give his name.

There is a lot of evidence still out there, he explains, including original documents, that are important to building cases.  

Some of this paperwork was generated by the apartheid regime and now sits in the South African History Archive. More recent documentation came out of the TRC and amnesty hearings.

“If, for example, you have ballistic evidence or other physical evidence at a crime scene, this can support what was said in an amnesty application,” the investigator explains. “Let’s say the physical evidence shows that a bullet was found at the scene and the applicant says I used that calibre firearm, all that is corroboration.”

Also helping in these investigations are the advances in science and forensics that have happened since these crimes were perpetrated.

In the Timol case, motion experts were able to show that the young activist was unlikely to have jumped to his death, as the state claimed, from what was then the 10th floor of the John Vorster Police Station building, in Johannesburg.  

“Experts were able to show that the trajectory of someone jumping out of the 10 windows would have ended up somewhere else. And that clearly what we saw was someone being pushed out, or killed first and the body thrown out,” says Yasmin Sooka, of the Foundation for Human Rights.

However, the biggest problem facing those investigating these crimes is time.

The perpetrators, witnesses and those victim’s families, desperately seeking closure, are dying.  

I think it’s important symbolically that there is a formal case against these people [apartheid criminals]. That it does bring some sense of justice and closure to the families. And also it sends out a message to people who might be contemplating these crimes now, that the long arm of the law is very long.