Solidarity calls out policy on English police statements

Solidarity (Solidariteit), a South African trade union, has criticised a new policy issued by the Western Cape police chief, Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile, requiring all A1 statements and official documentation from the South African Police Service (SAPS) to be in English.

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Policy on English statements places burden on police officers

The union argues that the policy places an unreasonable burden on police officers.

They are expected to act as interpreters, and translate statements for victims who do not speak English.

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Solidarity contends that such a requirement can lead to legal defeat, and violates the right to access an efficient legal system for non-English speaking individuals.

Questions on accuracy

Organiser for the public sector at Solidarity, Ronel Stander, states that the accuracy of the content of a statement is non-negotiable, especially in the case of a criminal complaint.

She explains that expecting people in areas, where only a small minority of the population is fully fluent in English, to make statements in English disregards the reality that about half of the Western Cape population’s first language is Afrikaans.

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Large percentages of those whose home language is not Afrikaans are fluent in Afrikaans, while English is the first language of only 20% of people in the Western Cape.

Solidarity argues that police officers and victims may not necessarily have the necessary language skills to ensure the accuracy of translation, and that the SAPS has made no effort to train officers or to contract experts for this.

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People who make statements are often already traumatised

Stander notes that people who make statements to the police are often already traumatised and confused, making the process of taking a statement complicated.

Requiring mandatory translation by an officer in such a situation is unworkable, and could have devastating consequences.

Solidarity has instructed its legal team to investigate the matter further to ensure that police officers are not unreasonably harmed, and that the right to justice of non-English speaking members of the public is not violated.

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The union emphasises that South Africa has 11 official languages, and that no one should be deprived of their right to access an efficient legal system simply because they, or a police officer, do not understand a specific language.

Stander concludes that the new policy is harmful and unnecessary, and that police officers do not need such ridiculous instructions to make their job even more difficult.

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