I received this e-mail from the JPSA and thought I would share it.

If one reads a newspaper on any given day, issues of corruption are raised on a frequent basis. But reading the paper and mouthing off about how bad the problem is achieves little more than raising a bit of hype from time to time. Every time a government minister gets a ridiculously expensive new car or a relative wins a tender, everyone gasps and yells about how corrupt these guys are – then does absolutely nothing about it.

And when the ruling political party chooses to bring disciplinary charges against one of its own (ANC v Vavi) for “speaking against alleged corruption by several ministers”, you have got to wake up and smell the sewage and realise that tackling corruption is not a priority in South Africa.

But government ministers are not the only ones that are corrupt. Corruption is a South African institution and is one that unfolds every single day. The sad fact of the matter is that corruption is so widespread in South Africa that it is becoming an accepted way of going about many people’s everyday lives.

Take for example the multitudes that slip the odd R100 here and R500 there to traffic cops who threaten them with outrageous fines and demerit points on their driver’s license. Nowhere is corruption more prevalent in South African culture than in law enforcement.

Fines apparently don’t bother us much but when the possibility of having our driver’s license withdrawn looms, the playing field changes entirely and people who would not ordinarily even consider paying a bribe suddenly dig for their wallets and haul out the bucks to make the problem go away. But is your problem actually going away or is it feeding another problem entirely – corruption culture?

The sad fact of the matter is that it is indeed feeding the corruption culture and whilst one may not see the on-going effect that it has at the time, paying bribes simply encourages the continued and escalated practice of corruption.

The effect has already been seen all over, with traffic cops hinting for bribes and this has now escalated to demanding them. Of particular cause for alarm is how officers employed by the JMPD have on numerous occasions that we have become aware of threatened people with dire consequences if they do not pay a bribe.

A recent case reported to us demonstrated just how bad things are becoming. Here is a précis of it:

On a Tuesday morning in early May 2010, a young, female motorist was on her way to Lenasia when she was stopped on a roadblock on the N12. She was told that her BMW had a laser jammer in it, her driver’s license was taken from her then she was hauled out of her car and thrown into the back of a JMPD van.A short while later, she was removed from the van, taken back to her car and told that her car would be impounded and that the fine was R25,000. The officer then allegedly said to her “so what are you going to do for me if I don’t fine you?”When she said that she had no money on her the cop allegedly said “give me your cell phone number and I will contact you, but don’t lie to me – remember I have your driver’s license.” He then allegedly went on to say “I can come to your house and we can spend an hour collecting…” This is shocking because it clearly has sexual overtones!The complainant (her mother) only contacted JPSA to report the matter whilst it was happening but when we put a plan in place to tackle the officer concerned, she backed off an never contacted us again - so we could do nothing about it.

Although we are able to react more swiftly and effectively than most agencies, we need to make sure that we have all of our ducks in a row before rushing off. Scrambling support and the relevant law enforcement agencies to address these matters takes effort and time and there are procedures that must be followed prior to effecting arrest if a prosecution is to succeed. We can (and have often) manage this process and our success rates are high but we need full co-operation from the public as well. We also need funding, but that has simply fallen on deaf ears – everywhere.

But tackling corruption is not only the responsibility of anti-corruption agencies and organisations. The problem belongs to everyone and every person in this country needs to take ownership of the problem and recognise that “if you are not part of the solution – you are part of the problem.”

You have the right (and responsibility) to say “NO!” when you are asked for a bribe and to report the matter immediately so that something may be done about it.

If the fine against you is valid then take your punishment like a responsible adult and if it is not there are courts in which you can plead your case.

Each time a bribe is paid, the related success on the part of the bribe taker leads to repeated solicitation and as time progresses the amount and seriousness grows. It starts with a Coke or a Kentucky treat and progresses to large amounts and now, seemingly, the solicitation of sexual favours!

The time has long passed that South Africans grew some cajones (nuts for those who can’t speak Spanish) and stopped capitulating to corruption and accepting it as a “South African Institution”. Corruption is not a phenomenon unique to South Africa, but its widespread acceptance is.

Stop paying bribes, report offenders and support organisations like JPSA who can only tackle the problem if they have the means to do so. Either that or prepare to have yourself or your partner solicited for sexual favours because you paid a bribe the other day.

For more information visit www.jp-sa.org.

I must agree with the author that ordinary South Africans are fueling the fires of corruption by their willingness to pay bribes.

I know of a number of people who have paid bribes to the Traffic police or Police and then brazenly brag afterward about how they 'got off'.
They just make the situation worse for the rest of us who are not willing to pay bribes.

Slightly off topic but Carte Blance Consumer featured the JMPD last night again.
Howard Dembovsky (Justice Project South Africa) was involved in the investigation and is featured in the interview.

JMPDebt

The Johannesburg Metro Police Department or JMPD appears to be using scare tactics to rake in unpaid traffic fines dating back more than two years.

Ugen Vos (Journalist): 'They tell you quite bluntly that you will go to jail if you don't pay these fines.'

Ugen Vos is a journalist with the Citizen newspaper.

In February, he received an email from what appeared to be the JMPD.

He called the phone number printed on the letter.

[On phone] Woman (Call centre): 'Welcome to JMPD Traffic Fines.'

Ugen: 'When you get through to the call centre, all indications are that you are speaking directly to JMPD.'

In reality, Ugen had rung the call centre of a private debt collecting agency, VVM Collections in Randburg.

...

Read the full transcript or watch the video here.