Cape Town - More than 300 people have allegedly died at the hands of police in the Western Cape in the past year. This is aside from the more than 2 000 deaths ascribed to police in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
These figures were given to members of Parliament by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
The Ipid report paints a dark picture of the negligent handling of rapes in police custody, alleged rape cases against police officers, and aggressive and trigger-happy cops.
Ipid’s report shows that it is working through a backlog of 40 065 cases nationally, though decisions have been made only in a few cases.
However, Ipid officials said the actual backlog figure is 12 000 cases.
Ipid executive director Jennifer Ntlatseng said that in the Western Cape there had been 206 deaths in police custody; 389 deaths as a result of police action; 651 complaints about police shootings; 150 rape cases against police officers and 12 rape cases against officers in police holding cells; 55 cases of torture; 6 567 assault cases; 18 corruption cases and 81 other criminal offences.
She said only 39 reported cases didn’t comply with the Ipid Act.
Comparatively, 1 010 people allegedly died at the hands of cops in Gauteng, while KwaZulu-Natal recorded 946 such cases.
More than 5 000 police officers across the country were probed for cases, most of which related to gender-based violence in the 2021/22 financial year, Ntlatseng said.
She said Ipid made 667 recommendations about the Western Cape, and the directorate “expects” 227 disciplinary hearings from these.
Of these, the directorate has so far received feedback for 21 cases, including 13 guilty verdicts, five not guilty, two withdrawn and 10 cases where no action was taken.
They achieved an unqualified audit.
“We are doing our level best to deal with police brutality and misconduct,” Ntlatseng said.
DA MP Ockert Terblanche said: “There are only 20 convictions (nationally). This is a very dismal performance.” He said police were getting away with serious crimes because Ipid was ineffective.
Freedom Front Plus leader Dr Pieter Groenewald said Ipid’s 5% success rate was a cautionary tale on the institution’s capacity.
“Ipid is failing the people of South Africa,” Groenewald said.
Police committee chairperson ANC MP Tina Joemat-Pettersson said: “I do not think we can safely say that those who have to enforce the law and act against gender-based violence (by members of the police) are doing so.
“If we are unable to monitor our own and our own are getting away with this, how do we expect GBV to be addressed by police and overseen by Ipid, when there are clear lapses of commitment. This is very disconcerting, unacceptable and disappointing.”
Ipid investigations head Innocent Khuba said the directorate would apply its best resources to monitor serious cases on a regular basis.
“The provinces with high backlogs are KZN, Gauteng and Western Cape. We’re going to be employing five or six retired policemen, who will be vetted, to assist us to dispose of the backlog cases. We have the budget available for that,” Khuba said.
He said 24 000 cases had either been rejected or accepted by the NPA. Khuba said the actual backlog figure was 12 000 as they had not closed cases referred to the NPA.
Joemat-Pettersson and Police Deputy Minister Cassel Mathale agreed that the Ipid Amendment Bill would improve the directorate.
soyiso.maliti@inl.co.za