Every year, police in South Africa kill hundreds of people and are accused of brutalising thousands more. A new investigation by Viewfinder has revealed that the killings and brutality are enabled by police management’s reluctance to discipline officers accused of wrongdoing in these cases. This is true even when watchdog investigations conclude that these officers should be disciplined. Given free rein to re-offend, problem officers may become emboldened. For their victims, the consequences can be dire.
Featured Content
On 1 June 2014, a group of police officers in a rural Eastern Cape township were accused of beating a man so badly that they broke his ribs and ruptured his small intestine. Phindile Ramncwana, 52, died from his injuries shortly thereafter.
Read more
Police minister Bheki Cele has brushed off the findings of Viewfinder’s exposé on police management’s failure to discipline officers implicated in cases of brutality and even murder. In doing so, the minister ignored key facts about our investigation and about the ill health of police oversight in South Africa. In this article, Viewfinder responds to minister Cele to set the record straight.
Read more
National police commissioner General Khehla Sitole has admitted to Parliament that discipline management at the South African Police Service (SAPS) needs to be overhauled. This comes after MPs used findings from a recent Viewfinder investigation to question the SAPS about its continued reluctance
Read moreLatest from this investigation
Former officials say that IPID’s recall of two investigators from a task team probing alleged corruption by senior police officers is a ploy to scupper the investigations and to protect former police commissioner Kgomotso Phahlane and others from prosecution.
Read More
The police watchdog’s commitment to better case management practices has gone half-way. But, with political will and proper oversight, there is always the possibility for IPID to implement better performance indicators. Meanwhile, the full effect of funding shortfalls at IPID was laid bare at Wednesday’s meeting with Parliament.
Read More
After a Viewfinder exposé and pressure from Parliament, IPID made a u-turn on its decision to clear police of wrongdoing in the circumstances leading up to the death of Petrus Miggels in Ravensmead on the first day of national lockdown. An investigation of police assault is now underway.
Read More
Collins Khosa was allegedly beaten to death by soldiers enforcing lockdown regulations in Alexandra township in April. Now, his family has approached the High Court in Pretoria for a wide ranging order to curtail abuses by police and military, and to improve oversight. The court bid touches on long standing failings of South Africa’s police watchdog, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate.
Read More
Latest from our partner newsroom, GroundUp
Partners in this investigation
