The existing Police Service Act will be completely overhauled by the end of 2004, Mluleki George MP, chairman of the parliamentary committee on safety and security, and Gauteng Safety and Liaison MEC Nomvula Mokonyane, said on Tuesday.
They told an Independent Complaints Directorate conference in Fourways, Johannesburg, that the Act was outdated.
”We will draw up a new law that is strongly focused on human rights and transparency,” said Mokonyane, adding that it would incorporate all the lessons learned over the past 10 years.
George said the new Act would look at the broad picture of policy and fix current weaknesses.
One of the main changes would be to remove police officers from the constraints of the Public Service Act because the conditions they worked under were not the same as performing normal public service, George said.
The Bill was initially planned for last year, but then the more urgent Anti-Terrorism Bill took its place.
The revised Act which has been described as ”extremely thorough” is expected to be passed towards the end of the year, after the general election takes place. Another issue discussed was the greater empowerment of the ICD as a crime fighting body.
Plans are afoot to increase the police monitoring agent’s budget to allow it to embark on a more aggressive monitoring and investigative policy.
Karen McKenzie, the ICD’s executive director, said the number of corruption charges it had received since 2002 had increased by 100% – Sapa