Image: Daily Maverick
Faizel Patel – 06/07/2021
Media organisation Viewfinder has revealed out the of nine provinces in South Africa, Gauteng’s Independent Police Investigation Directorate (IPID) registered some of the highest number of deaths in police custody and assault cases against police.
The organisations Daneel Knoetze was speaking to Radio Islam about how brutal police officers in Gauteng are not facing consequences for their actions.
Police in the province have reportedly killed more than 900 people since 2012, among them was Ishmael Gama from Lenasia South, who died last year after police repeatedly poured boiling water over him and a friend, while beating them mercilessly.
While police watchdog Ipid in March recommended that eight police officers be disciplined, to date, nothing has happened.
Knoetze says while Gauteng is also one of the most populous provinces where the crime rate is high, the revelations of police brutality is not unexpected.
“What we do see as well for these high numbers of deaths, it is underwritten of very many assaults and sometimes torture allegations as well within the police service, that’s an issue across South Africa of which Gauteng shows that we got some of the highest number being reported to Ipid in this category.”
Knoetze says Ipid is only mandated to investigate police and not take action against them.
“It is entirely dependent on the police services management and to a degree the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) to affect accountability through its findings, through implementing its recommendations of prosecutions either in court or through disciplinary hearings.”
Knoetze says Viewfinders investigation also found that the loopholes that exists within Saps’ discipline regulations which overseas and governs discipline management, enables senior police officers that are tasked with enforcing Ipid’s recommendations to effectively “whitewash” cases against their colleagues or to simply not act at all.
Listen to the interview with Daneel Knoetze
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