R14bn in civil claims filed against police in 2015-16

CIVIL claims totalling more than R14-billion – mainly for alleged human rights violations – were received by the police ministry in the last financial year.

This was revealed yesterday by the portfolio committee on police chairman‚ Frans Beukman, at a dialogue on police and human rights hosted in Johannesburg by the South African Human Rights Com- mission and the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum.

Beukman said there had been 16 000 civil claims‚ compared with 2 887 in the 2014-15 financial year.

Of the R14.672-billion‚ R290-million was paid out and R7.398-billion cancelled or reduced.

The claims were largely related to unlawful arrests and detention‚ assaults and shooting incidents.

Beukman said several mechanisms could be implemented to curb the violation of human rights by police and thereby decrease the civil claim cases.

“The reaction to human rights is sometimes also what is coming from the top,” he said.

“We believe the executive authority – the minister and deputy minister and the top leadership of the SAPS – should be the main messengers in promoting the culture of good conduct in line with human rights and the human rights ap- proach. If the message coming from there is not in line without that approach, the ordinary member at the station level or in the specialised unit level will not be able to interpret correctly‚ so it’s very important that the tone from the top should be correct and there should be emphasis on human rights.

“We can’t go with the approach of force at all cost.”

SAHRC commissioner Chris Nis- sen said police must be sensitised to human rights because at times they did not give cases of human rights violation the attention they deserved.

Commission chairman Bongani Majola said the issue of police killings could not be divorced from the violation of human rights.

He said police also needed support and protection because without them many things would go wrong in the country.