Peter Dickson
An average of eight people have died at the hands of the police during the past five months in the Eastern Cape, while 87 people were killed in the 12 months to September 1999.
The Eastern Cape arm of the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD), the police watchdog, disclosed these figures this week in a report on its first year of operations.
The report said 87 people died in detention or as a result of police action between October 1998 and September 1999. ICD provincial director Alfredeen Jenneker, whose department is directly accountable to Minister of Safety and Security Steve Tshwete, said from King William’s Town this week the figure during that period meant there had been an average of 7,25 deaths a month.
“We had hoped that figures would decline, but the average of deaths in police custody and as a result of police action from October last year to last month – five months – has remained at a height of 8,8 people dying every month in the Eastern Cape alone,” Jenneker said.
She added that the Eastern Cape division of the directorate – a small team on 24- hour standby which investigates primarily custody deaths, killings by police, police spousal abuse, crimes against children and racist slurs – had still managed to record a “significant breakthrough in investigations during the same period”.
The Eastern Cape ICD is also researching other frequent complaint areas, including racism in the police, escapes from police custody and “non-lethal measures of making arrests”, while also contributing to police training materials.