Picture: for illustration purposes
A surge of reported cases involving the police has put the Western Cape at the top of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate's (Ipid) list of provinces reported this past financial year, ending in March 2023.
The Ipid's annual report, recently presented to parliament, detailed a total of 5,274 cases reported from across the country during the 2022-23 financial year. Western Cape's number of reported cases stands at the highest at 1,038, followed by Gauteng with 976 and KwaZulu-Natal with 644, as stated by Ipid's Executive Director, Jennifer Ntlatseng.
Ntlatseng also noted that while the majority of the provinces showed an increase in case reports, the Northern Cape, Eastern Cape, Gauteng, and North West showed a decrease. Despite the provincial inconsistencies, the overall national number of cases decreased by 0.4%, from 5,295 to 5,274 cases.
The report broke down the nature of the reported cases, which included 3,354 assault cases and 710 complaints of official firearm discharge. Deaths in police custody (221), due to police action (393), and alleged cases of rape by police officers (122) also featured in the report.
The Ipid has investigated most of the cases, with 4,969 involving members of South African Police Services (SAPS) and 90 related to municipal police service members. The majority of these cases were related to allegations of assault.
The report also indicated a significant contribution from deaths resulting from police action to the total number of deaths, with KwaZulu-Natal leading with 115 cases. Gauteng followed with 108 cases, while Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga recorded 37 and 32 cases, respectively. On the other hand, Gauteng had the most reported incidents of suicide in police custody at 11 cases.
Ipid recorded a jump in the number of reported rape cases by police officers from 99 to 122 cases this financial year, the majority of which were reported in Gauteng. The report also highlighted that a total of 2,093 criminal cases were referred to the National Prosecuting Authority for evaluation and decision.