Report Today, 3 April 2013, the North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Human Settlement, Public Safety and Liaison send the provincial management of Independent Police Investigative Directorate packing after they failed to provide a detailed report into the police brutality incidents in the province.
The Committee was not satisfied with the report from IPID and recommended that it will call the pathologist who conducted postmortem on the body of the late Tshepiso Nebe including the state lawyer in the case to also give detailed information.
The IPID briefed the Committee on the cases of the late Mr Tshepiso Nebe of Lomanyaneng village who was allegedly killed by police during a protest in the area and a case of Warrant Officer De Klerk who is alleged to have negligently shot and killed Mr IT Morake who is alleged to have been involved in a case of house breaking and theft at Ikageng township. A case of a police constable, who is alleged to have dragged a man with a police vehicle for a distance with his body hanging from a driver’s window at Klerksdorp and Mr Morgan Mohlala, a policing forum chairperson and court interpreter who was allegedly dragged for about 100 meters in a gravel road by a police officer in a police vehicle at Setlopo village.
The Committee was also briefed on the recent incident at Ganyesa village whereby it is alleged that local police officers who went to the local tavern to issue a fine and got involved in a brawl with patrons allegedly fired shots as a protective cover and one person was fatally wounded.
The Committee Chairperson, Hon Mahlakeng Mahlakeng said the Committee was not happy on how the report was drafted as it had inaccuracies in some of the incidents. “The facts on the late Tshepiso Nebe case and Ganyesa incidents were confusing in terms of the actual investigations.
“What was reported and explained to us was totally different from what was on the report and there were no clear details of the incidents,” said Hon Mahlakeng.
The provincial IPID Director on Investigations, Ms Batseba Motlhale said the directorate will give the Committee a detailed report on all incidents of police brutality in the province.
“We will also brief the Committee on how we are intending to charge police officers who don’t report police brutality incidents to us on time as it is unlawful according to the Section 33 of the IPID Act,” said Ms Motlhale.
Hon. Mahlakeng said the Committee will call the IPID and other stakeholders in two weeks time to get a full reports as agreed in the meeting.
For more information contact:
Namhla Luhabe
Cell: 079 527 0628
