Few eyebrows would have been raised at the claims by Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille that the police are involved in corruption and drug shipping in many parts of the country.

Few eyebrows would have been raised at the claims by Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille that the police are involved in corruption and drug shipping in many parts of the country.

This is because of past incidents in which bad apples in the police force and drug syndicates had exposed such collusion. Also corroborating Zille's claims is the fact that drug syndicates still operate with impunity in major centres of the country.

Addressing residents of Phoenix in Durban at the weekend, Zille also claimed that drug lords paid police officers tax for protection.

Phoenix is reputed to be awash with drugs.

Without detracting from Zille's vigorous anti-drug campaign, we would like to urge the DA leader to not only raise the alarm about corrupt policemen but go further by providing their names to the SAPS so it can weed them out of its ranks.

This would be a more useful contribution to the campaign.