A police-watchdog body is worried by the high number of deaths in detention and police custody. Tangeni Amupadhi reports.
THE number of people dying at the hands of the police is increasing, according to the new police watchdog, the Independent Complaints Directorate. And even while reporting this, the directorate describes its difficulties in getting details of deaths from the police.
If the present trend continues, by the end of this year the known deaths of suspects held in police cells and during police action will have doubled to 500 from the 226 in 1995.
The directorate, which began working on April 1, says it received 41 complaints about deaths during its first month. Its executive director, Neville Melville, believes this is the tip of the iceberg as many other cases have not reached the organisation.
“We go through the newspapers every day and make follow-ups, and that’s how we learnt about some of the incidents,” he says.
Although the police are obliged to report all deaths – in custody, during arrests, and whether intentional or due to negligence – “this does not seem to have filtered down to the grassroots level”, he says.
Melville notes that the police have not released last year’s figures, nor have they given any explanation: “We’ve tried to get the figures, without any success.”
In the two months of the directorate’s existence, deaths in detention have been “the only discernible trend [of complaints against police] we could pick up so far”, Melville says.
He adds that the directorate is “worried” and “surprised” by the high number of deaths, especially in KwaZulu-Natal.
Seven people died in cells there in April and more than 20 were shot “intentionally or during arrest”. Foul play was ruled out in some of the cases. But at least one person might have died as a result of torture by the police.
In its first month the directorate received a total of nearly 160 complaints against the police. These included torture (mainly in Gauteng), fraud, extortion, failure to act on complaints and reckless driving.
By the end of this month it will have referred at least 10 cases to the attorney general for possible prosecution.
The directorate is working at a fast pace despite the constraints of operating without computers and with a shortage of investigators. It needs 2 000 of its own thoroughly vetted investigators – based on the ratio applicable in New York. In contrast, it has just received the approval of the Public Service Commission for 25 to start with the most urgent complaints.
Five investigators are at present at the head office in Pretoria and 11 in KwaZulu- Natal, all on loan from the South African Police Service (SAPS). The directorate has offices in only three provinces, and Melville reckons it will take a year before it is fully operational.
Its probes have been met with “passive obstruction and closing of ranks at some police stations and co-operation at others”, he says.
A directorate report to be released soon sums up: “The SAPS is not an organisation which takes kindly to criticism – there seems to be a strategy or culture of discrediting critics.”
The directorate has thus far shied away from undertaking any publicity campaign about itself because it fears it might be unable to handle the number of complaints which could come in. “At this stage I have more than enough complaints to deal with,” says Melville.
This explains why most of its information comes from newspapers, the Safety and Security secretariat, MECs and lawyers.
The directorate is proposing legislative changes to increase its powers. At present it falls under the Police Act but wants its own enabling legislation; it wants powers to enforce its recommendations and is seeking clarity on whether it should monitor all internal SAPS investigations into police conduct.
* In 1978, according to government statistics, a total of 364 people died while in police custody or were shot by policemen “in the execution of their duties”.
However, this statistic may not have included all deaths at the hands of police, as reports to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission have shown.