An annual report – be it corporate or government – is less about telling stakeholders what’s happened, than glossing over failures and organisational cankers. When it documents the activities of a paramilitary, the public relations varnish hides the stench of real corpses.
The annual report of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), tasked with controlling illegal police behaviour, was recently tabled in Parliament to curiously cursory media coverage. That’s surprising, given that in 2011/12 there were 4 923 investigations into South African Police Service (SAPS) malfeasance, most seriously for wrongful actions in 720 deaths.
That’s equivalent to about two people a day dead as a result of SAPS actions. The 34 tragically killed by police fire at Marikana, in context, amount to just over an average fortnight of SAPS-linked deaths.
As disturbing as the alleged SAPS misbehaviour is the confusion of the ICD, recently renamed the Independent Police Investigations Directorate (IPID), as to what it should be doing. The key performance indicator of ICD success should be the number of rogue cops brought to justice.
Instead what looms largest in the ICD report is the number of “awareness sessions” it held, how many staff team building sessions it conducted, and how many disabled staff it has. Such avoidance tactics are understandable, however, for no matter how ICD spin the statistics, they are grim.
Adding in carried-forward cases, the ICD investigated 839 deaths in 2012, delivering 162 prosecution recommendations, in turn netting a paltry 13 convictions of bad cops. It made 168 recommendations for internal SAPS disciplinaries regarding deaths, which netted five officer dismissals.
ICD also investigated 2 912 other criminal allegations, leading to 383 prosecution recommendations, but netting only 23 officer convictions. The question, never asked in the IDC report, is whether its failures are due to its useless investigators or the useless staff of the National Prosecuting Authority.
What is apparent is that despite Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa’s assurance in the foreword that “civilian oversight … must not just become a rhetoric (sic) slogan”, SAPS treat the ICD with contempt. The ICD recommended internal SAPS sanctions in 1 276 cases of domestic violence, crime and misconduct, SAPS however acted in only 90 cases, mostly delivering reprimands or verbal warnings, although an attempted murder in Boitekong did elicit for the naughty cop involved a no doubt stern written warning.
Instead of examining the reasons for such pathetic interventions, the ICD focuses on its clerical prowess in meeting or exceeding targets for processing complaints. Unlike a mostly snoozing media, the parliamentary oversight committee was not fooled.
Its chair, the African National Congress’s Annelize van Wyk, lambasted the “unacceptably low” conviction rates, “no doubt due to the poor quality of investigations”. The new IPID would have to “seriously question” whether it was adequately focused on the human-rights issues that should underpin its work.
The Democratic Alliance’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard then asked the ICD’s spokesperson Moses Dlamini the most important question of the day. Were all 4 923 cases individually investigated? Dlamini admitted that it was “not possible to investigate every one of the cases individually”.
So that abysmal conviction rate is despite the ICD cherry picking what it thought were open-and-shut cases. Worse, thousands of citizens who ran foul of SAPS brutality or corruption and turned to the ICD, have been betrayed. Their protectors didn’t do a full investigation.
Legislation compelling SAPS to co-operate and to respond to the agency’s recommendations should help but Kohler-Barnard says the problem is that SAPS remains a law unto itself. Institute of Strategic Studies policing expert Gareth Newham concurs: “Civilian oversight of the police is always difficult but what is most needed is strong political support from the police minister, to compel SAPS accountability.”
Another problem was that ICD investigators get too close to the police, compromising their impartiality. “They twice cleared National Commissioner Jackie Selebi, who was subsequently found guilty of corruption and jailed,” he notes.
Newham is critical, too, of the agency’s “bureaucratic and technocratic” focus. “The statistics collected are not fit for the purpose of holding the police accountable. For example, accidental deaths caused by police drivers are lumped with suicides in custody and police shootings, which means one just can’t come to a clear picture.”
There is a huge cost to the inability of the failure of the ICD to rein in SAPS violence. In the year 2011/12 a third of the SAPS budget was earmarked for contingent liabilities. Most of this is for civil claims against SAPS amounting to R14.8 billion.
It is predictable, then, that the ICD/IPID will try to shield its failures from public scrutiny. The agency did not alert the media to its 2011/12 report, didn’t respond to questions from this columnist regarding the report, and failed to hold the customary media briefing at Parliament because its “principals were not available”.
What! How can you talk about inefficient investigations into SAPS malfeasance! Let’s rather talk about the DA white tribal party in the Western Cape, how the earth is flat, and how the sun revolves around the earth, as everybody knows because I have said it must be.
Police, Education, Municipalities CAN be solved.
BUT we will NEVER get back the stolen billions! A few hundred years of pioneer savings and frugality down the drain in less than a generation!
The ANC inherited the largest economy on the continent of Africa – and trashed it in less than 20 years.
Now they want to BORROW 3 trillion rand for projects NONE of which are income generating like the old parastatals, and ALL of which are designed to benefit tenderpreneurs.
I’m in the least surprised that the ICD did not respond to you since your mean-spirited blogs only serve to create hysteria about black government and peddle your DA politics. You will twist anything they say to serve you petty political agenda.
Building awareness and implementing our affirmative action laws vital as we continue to build and reorient our police force to serve the MAJORITY rather than the 10% minority exclusively served by the apartheid’s police. Oh, but serving the majority is of course is not important to you.
You continually whinge about the level of crime in SA while simultaneously creating hysteria about police brutality just as our local media did during the 2010 FIFA World Cup to dissuade tourists from visiting. I think your hidden agenda is now pretty obvious.
@Dave Harris
“You will twist anything they say to serve you petty political agenda”.
Sounds a bit like the pot blaming the kettle.
Harris, care to address the fact that the majority of people killed by the police are working-class and unemployed blacks – you know, the people you claim to be so concerned about?
I see that Harris ‘s WSM pop-up alert is still switched on.
I particularity liked the balanced and non threatening way Harris addresses each point, rather than just mindlessly shooting the messenger or playing the race card. My confidence in the ICD is now completely restored by this excellent rebuttal.
Does the brutal killing of miners in Marikana with live ammunition is part of the tr8ining for the police to serve the majority, my friend Harris?
My experience with police results in the opinion that many should be locked up. The SAPS in my town of Knysna are shocking. There are no good cops if they aren’t arresting cops committing crimes. Cops do not get to be silent. Their job, by choice, was to walk into danger.
Thanks for the opinion piece, William. I’ll repost part of it with a link back to here for all of it.
I took a look at the 2010 ICD Report.
5,869 investigations. Completed 82% of investigations into deaths in custody, 83% of investigations into criminality. 797 cases of deaths potentially due to police action.501 recommendations for prosecution, 2,261 recommendations for disciplinary action. 59 cops convicted (with more cases pending). Note the difference between then and now.
It seems pretty obvious to me that the ICD has been gutted by the Cele-Mthethwa gang on Zuma’s behalf, just as the Scorpions were gutted in the past. No surprises there; if you want to be a successful crook, you have to make the police weak — and what better way than to ensure that nobody can investigate their crimes effectually?
It must be extremely difficult to be a police man or woman in this country. Poorly paid. Poorly equipped. A decent slice of the people you are trying to protect treating you like crap and then you reciprocate by treating them like crap and the spiral continues. And then, I’m sure, like all work places, you have the really ineffective and lazy ones. But you can’t fire them because you’ll have the union or a tribunal up the wazoo. So what do you do? Nothing. Or so it seems…… I wonder, would less cops who are better trained and better paid be more effective than the current situation?
Frankly, I’d classify omitted investigations as human rights’ abuses. Let’s get the ICC in on this.
I said then and I will say now. The ICD or IPID whatever you want to call it is a bunch of failed police officers, failed attorneys and cannot be expected to do good work. Having said that I think the Internal SAPS structures that were tasked with investigating the police were more succesful than the IPID/ICD clowns. These Internal teams were succesful in detecting avoidance techniques, defeating ends of justice by police officials because they were drawn from the best. Also we must not loose sight of the fact that as commanders of the police the men and women in these posts are expected to create a safe environment for their members to perform their duties and cannot at the same vein be expected to turn into snitches or informers for the IPID. The police look for their suspects through investigations and dont expect them to be delivered on a platter and I think the IPID should do the same or close shop. In advanced countries you have Internal Affairs Divisions that investigate police conduct and criminality and are succesful. Why do South Africans always come up with stupid and difficult models in dealing with certain issues? Look at all ground breaking cases in the South African Police Service history WHERE police officials were arrested and convicted. This was done by SAPS members themselves not the IPID. Look at Eugene de Kock, Gideon Niewoud, Butana Nofemela, Trustfeed massacre and so many examples. Dont waste our taxes on IPID. Rather set up IAD.
Stop that Cop
or
Catch Me if you Can
or
The Rot Starts at the Top
- – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – - – -
The police
Who break the law
Don’t appear before the law
Because they’re a law unto themselves
I.C.D.
Ineptitude, Corruption, Dysfunctionality
No coincidence that that could also B
A description of the A.N.C.