The police’s top brass have filed an application for leave to appeal an Equality Court judgment which found the allocation of policing in the Western Cape discriminated against poor black people. A Cape Times report notes the move has angered the Social Justice Coalition (SJC), which said it was disappointed in the Minister of Police, the National Police Commissioner and the Western Cape Police Commissioner.

The judgment, which is expected to be challenged in the SCA, relates to alleged unfair allocation of police resources in poor black areas.

The SJC, Equal Education and the Nyanga Community Policing Forum had argued the police’s system of determining the allocation of police human resources unfairly discriminated against black and poor people on the basis of race and poverty.

Judge MJ Dolamo had found in favour of the applicants and declared both that the allocation of police human resources in the Western Cape unfairly discriminated against black and poor people on the basis of race and poverty; and the system employed by police in the province to determine the allocation of the police human resources unfairly discriminated against black and poor people on the basis of race and poverty.

In their appeal, the police argued the court had made a premature finding, as the time frame given to them by the Khayelitsha Commission to implement remedial measures had not expired.

In their papers before the SCA, the police said they were working on measures to improve policing, and that the process of ‘overhauling’ was time consuming.

‘The prematurity argument should have been upheld in the circumstances since once the process is complete, the allocation policy may be different to the one before the court,’ they argued.

Full Cape Times report (subscription needed)