Photo: Darren Stewart/Gallo Image
The Portfolio Committee on Police is concerned about discipline in the police, with committee chairperson Tina Joemat-Pettersson likening the prevalence of torture and assault to that of the apartheid police.
To boot, the police and Independent Police Investigative Directorate s (IPID) figures on disciplinary cases did not correspond.
Police and IPID management appeared before the committee on Wednesday for a briefing on police discipline management and IPID s charges against police officers. Support independent journalism Subscribe to News24 for just R75 per month to read all our investigative and in-depth journalism. Subscribe
Free State, Gauteng and Western Cape highest in SAPS misconduct
By Tarryn-Leigh Solomons
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Cape Town - The South African Police Service has for the current financial year probed 3 401 disciplinary cases involving 4 438 of its members.
These cases range from corruption, rape in police custody, rape by a police officer, torture and assault, death in police custody and deaths as a result of police action to name a few.
The SAPS updated the committee on the status of discipline management, the reported cases of misconduct, the progress thereof and the impact of discipline on the conduct of employees.
Divisional Commissioner for the Human Resource Management, Lt Gen Lineo Ntshiea, said of the 3 401 cases, 271 officers have been suspended and 167 police officials have been dismissed. “We’ve managed to finalise 1 935 cases and 1 466 cases are still pending.”
The meeting may be the first time that SAPS is compelled to respond to a recent
Viewfinderinvestigation which revealed that senior police officers routinely exploit legal and regulatory loopholes to protect their colleagues implicated in violent crimes including assault, torture, shootings, rape and unlawful killings. Police have not responded to queries from
Viewfinder and it skirted questions on the issue in Parliament last week.
The chairperson of Parliament’s portfolio committee on policing (PCP), Tina Joemat-Pettersson, spoke to
Viewfinder on Friday. “We (the committee) agree that there is a problem… We have to tighten the loopholes,” she said.
Police disciplinary decline coupled with higher IPID caseload
Rorisang Kgosana Mathews Phosa should have filed a complaint with the police, instead of calling up a member of the Hawks to have a phone call traced, experts say. Former ANC NEC member Mathews Phosa speaks to The Citizen during an exclusive interview in Pretoria on 1 March 2016. Picture: Refilwe Modise The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) should look into Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation officials who seem to be at the beck and call of politicians and abuse state resources for personal favours, said legal experts. The latest politician to reveal how he benefited from being able to call on favours from the directorate, commonly known as the Hawks, was former ANC treasurer-general Mathews Phosa. Phosa casually admitted to having called a “Colonel Mhlanga” to trace an unknown number