Cops’, Ipid’s sums fail to tally

HE POLICE have come under fire from Parliament after they claimed to have probed 85 percent of the misconduct cases against officers from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid). The directorate told MPs the police investigated only 15 percent of the cases.

Chairman of the police portfolio committee Francois Beukman said the police, Ipid and the Civilian Secretariat for Police should return to Parliament at the end of January with a common position on the statistics after they had reconciled the figures.

National police commissioner General Riah Phiyega admitted to members of the portfolio committee that they were running in opposite directions to Ipid.

Deputy national commissioner for corporate services LieutenantGeneral Nobubele Mbekela told the committee that the SAPS had received 764 cases from Ipid to take action against its ill-disciplined members, and it completed 85 percent of them in 2012/13.

But Ipid’s acting chief director of compliance monitoring and stakeholder management, Mariaan Geerdts, said that out of the 788 cases it referred to the police against its members, only 15 percent of the investigations were completed.

Ipid head of investigations Mathews Sesoko said it based its figures on documentary evidence from the police.

“When we send recommendations to the police, we say ‘discipline a member’. Our expectation is that we must get feedback from the police. There are cases where we get proof,” said Sesoko.

Ipid had found that of the 788 cases referred to the SAPS for action, the police acted on only 15 percent, he said.

Mbekela said the police’s meeting with Ipid next week would allow the SAPS to take another look at the different figures.

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