Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula on Monday criticised the way in which the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) records incidents where police use force against suspected criminals.
Opening a two-day ICD workshop in Pretoria on improving relations between the directorate, police and civil society, Nqakula said the ICD needs to differentiate between lawful and unlawful police actions.
”In defence of the member or the public, if you pull out a firearm against them [the police], a police officer has the right to pull out his firearm to stop you,” Nqakula said.
”Police are duty bound to take down criminals who take out a gun to harm them or the public. In such cases, the police are not undermining our democracy.”
Reiterating his point, he said a situation where police officers or members of the public are killed will not be allowed.
”I’m not giving the police carte blanche to kill our people like it happened in the past; they can’t shoot at people who are unarmed or are running away, but when lives are threatened, police have a responsibility to act.”
The ICD is responsible for investigating complaints of brutality, criminality and misconduct against members of the police. The directorate publishes the recommendations every year and this often leads to conflict with police.
”There have been reports that we have generated which are clubbing a number of things together and producing figures that have been used internationally to hit at us,” Nqakula said.
He said a way needs to be found to report all incidents, but there must be a difference between the criminal acts of police officers and those where they assist people.
”One must ask: How are they are doing their work, are they undermining or assisting our democracy?” Nqakula said. — Sapa