AN AVERAGE of two people a day allegedly died at the hands of police in South Africa in the year leading up to last March, parliament heard on Thursday. The Independent Complaints Directorate said between April 1997 and March 1998 it received 739 complaints about deaths in police custody or as a result of police action. “In light of the international condemnation of the high rate of police killings under the previous regime, the discerned trend was disturbing,” the body said in a report delivered to parliament. However, it said, only 111 of the reported cases were investigated during the period under review because of staff and budgetary constraints.