Durban - The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) said KwaZulu-Natal had 628 new cases brought against police, the third highest in the country.
This was revealed in the 2021/22 annual report tabled by Ipid in Parliament on Wednesday.
The report said during the period under review, the department recorded a total of 5 295 new cases.
These include 3 407 (64%) assault cases, 744 (14%) discharge of an official arm, 410 (8%) deaths as a result of police action, 223 (4%) death in police custody and 124 (2%) other criminal matters and misconduct.
“Six provinces reported a high number of new cases ranging from 509 to 984. The Gauteng office recorded 984, followed by the Western Cape with 963, KwaZulu Natal 628, the Eastern Cape 598, the Free State 567 and Mpumalanga 509. Each of the other three provinces received over 300 cases,” said the report.
The report said seven KZN officers were arrested during this period:
- One attempted murder arrest in Ixopo in April.
- One common assault and kidnapping arrest in Umbilo in May.
- One arrested for rape in Pietermaritzburg in June.
- Four corruption arrests made in June in Mandeni.
In KZN during the same period there were 129 deaths as a result of police action. This is higher than the 2020/21 period with 114 deaths.
With regard to rape in the province, there were nine cases committed by on-duty officers while 11 were committed by off-duty police officers.
Ipid spokesperson Lizzy Suping, said in a statement on Wednesday that the enforcement of Covid-19 restrictions and the July unrest in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal resulted in more cases of police misconduct, particularly assault, which was reported to Ipid.
“During the year under review, 4 015 cases were investigated and referred to SAPS and the NPA for disciplinary sanctions and decision for prosecution. Ipid secured 239 disciplinary convictions with 53 officers dismissed from service. The SAPS referrals involved 311 police officers,” said Suping.
Suping said Ipid secured 20 convictions with the highest sentence imposed being life imprisonment. She said the other sentences ranged between eight and 22 years for acts of crime.
In the 2021/22 fiscal year, the directorate spent 98.34% of its allocated budget of R353 778 million and recorded a 94% achievement of its 2021/22 Annual Performance Plan targets, she said.
“The overall performance of Ipid has shown significant improvement as compared to the two previous financial years in its role of providing oversight to the police as well as ensuring that there is accountability from those who enforce the law,” she said.
Ipid executive director, Jennifer Ntlatseng, said the Covid-19 pandemic prompted the directorate to reflect on its evolving role with a view to redesigning its operating systems so as to provide for a resilient work environment.
“Our achievements included making headway as we made changes to the way we operated. We have managed to fill critical vacant positions, prioritised and converted some of the vacant positions into investigator positions which is our core mandate” said Ntlatseng.
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