Most wanted slip past SA’s cops

After one ‘lucky’ arrest, experts question effectiveness of finding fugitives abroad

INCOMPETENT, overworked and unskilled detectives are said to be allowing South African criminals to flee without a trace, with some of the most wanted criminals now being sought internationally. One of them was George Louka, alias George Smith, who was linked to the murder of Gauteng sex club Teazers boss Lolly Jackson. Louka is now dead.

Two others on the top 10 most wanted list – Jacque Anton Robbertse, wanted for rape and indecent assault, and Johannes Gerhardus Janse van Vuuren, sought for murder – are now behind bars overseas, facing extradition.

Despite their arrests, the men are still listed on Interpol’s most wanted list.

And this, experts say, is among reasons why the international fugitive list is ineffective. Other reasons include a lack of photographs and incompetent personnel who do not know of “red-notice” listings, meaning fugitives continue to skip South Africa’s borders.

A red notice is used to alert police internationally to a suspect and allows that person to be detained for extradition purposes to the country where the offence was committed.

Of other most wanted criminals, there are no pictures of three on the police website, while others, like Chad Khan, have only recently been included on Interpol’s red-notice listing.

This is despite Khan skipping the country 10 years ago after allegedly murdering his British girlfriend, Lauren Sleep, and attempting to murder her friend, Lisel Skoonwinkel.

The then investigating officer, Times Media has been told, knew Khan had family in Swaziland but failed to flag him.

Interpol’s importance is evident from its Operation International Fugitive Round–Up and Arrest, which has, since 2012, led to the arrest of almost 900 international fugitives and the location of 260.

But in South Africa, criminals are exploiting skills gaps within police detective units, travelling openly through airports and across borders, where customs officials and police border guards are blissfully unaware they are wanted.

Robbertse, 53, was arrested in Belgium last Tuesday – 10 years after he skipped South Africa – through luck when police officers, suspicious of his erratic behaviour, fingerprinted him.

He was arrested when officers discovered he was on the run after his conviction in a Rustenburg court for rape.

Seasoned detectives, criminologists and a former South African police Interpol officer say the arrest indicates the dire situation within the detective services.

But police spokesman Brigadier Hangwani Mulaudzi said: “Specialised and general training is a priority within the SAPS.

“If needs be, members are taken overseas or within the continent to learn and capacitate themselves with new trends, which they are expected to impart to their colleagues.

“Our trainers are also capacitated the same way. To claim there has never been training, or little of it, is not true.”

According to former Interpol officer Jacque Meyer, who was involved in Louka’s extradition, many South African detectives, especially at police station level, are unaware of Interpol’s existence.

The irony, he says, is that, though the SAPS Interpol office has one of the world’s highest arrest rates (95%) of foreign criminals hiding in this country, many South African criminals skip their own country.

Institute for Security Studies policing researcher Johan Burger said the state of the detective services hampered the search for international fugitives.

“We have some excellent detectives, but at the same time have lost huge amounts of expertise, with those left swamped by case loads,” Burger said.

Compounding the problem were “completely unsuitable” appointments.

Burger said the state of the detective services was obvious from the number of “botched” investigations.

“A draft report with recommendations from a parliamentary dialogue held in 2012 on how to turn the detective services around is still on the police minister’s table,” Burger said.

A detective with knowledge of Interpol resources said the situation around catching fleeing South African criminals was almost hopeless.

“They don’t need new identities to flee. A number of my colleagues don’t know about Interpol so don’t bother to flag them.

“Once gone, it’s nearly impossible to catch them, unless you have a lucky break, like in Belgium,” he said.