The release of figures showing that 830 KwaZulu-Natal law enforcement officers were under investigation would be probed, the Independent Complaints Directorate boss announced on Thursday.
Patrick Mongwe, the ICD’s acting executive director, said: ”The statistics must come from here [the head office]. There are policies within the department.”
He said that statistics could not be released with out having been ”audited and verified”.
”I have initiated an investigation and who has released those figures must be held to account,” he said.
Earlier in the day the ICD released a statement distancing itself from ”so-called statistics” supplied to the South African Press Association (Sapa) on Wednesday.
The statement, signed by Mongwe, said: ”We completely distance ourselves from the information that was released to the media yesterday as this was not provided by the ICD, hence the statement was not even on ICD letterheads.
”Any external communication from the ICD is always handled in a professional manner and would indicate names of people responsible for such communication and their full particulars.”
Sapa reported on Thursday that of the 830 officers under investigation — which include members of the South African Police Services, eThekwini Metro Police and other municipal police services — only one had been convicted during 2007.
This was a police officer from the High Flats police station who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for murder.
KwaZulu-Natal provincial head of the ICD, Tabisa Ralo on Wednesday said that of the 830 law enforcement officers being probed, 174 were being scrutinised for deaths in police custody or as a result of police action.
Another 289 were being investigated for misconduct while 351 were under investigation for failing to carry out their duties.
Mongwe declined to say who would be investigated or when he expected the investigation to be completed. – Sapa