Police Committee urges South Africans to use appropriate channels when registering concerns about Hawks
The Portfolio Committee on Police has encouraged South Africans to utilise appropriate legislative mechanisms at their disposal when seeking to register concerns pertaining to processes followed by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) when conducting investigations or the conduct of officials in this regard.
“We would like to urge South Africans to make use of the office of the DPCI Judge to register their concerns when they are not happy with the conduct of the DPCI officials when conducting investigations or any matter related thereto,” said Mr Francois Beukman, Police Committee Chairperson.
Mr Beukman reminded members of the public that the office of the DPCI Judge was established to deal with investigating complaints from the public against the HAWKS as well as investigate complaints from the HAWKS with respect to investigations they are conducting.
An amount of R5.5 million has been appropriated for the office of the DPCI Judge in the 2015/16 financial year and members of the public are called upon to make full use of this office.
The Committee said this during its meeting which took place today where members expressed their concerns about DPCI having been a subject of intense public and media debate in the last two weeks with regard to high-profile investigations currently underway.
The Committee said it was mindful that the spotlight on investigations by law enforcement agencies will always be there as this has been the case since 1994. However, it deemed it prudent to highlight the relevant constitutional and legislative arrangements that govern the functioning of the DPCI and to ensure that such a governance framework is maintained.
It is therefore critical that South African citizens have confidence in their law enforcement agencies. This is more so that the DPCI’s independence, security of tenure for the head of the unit and staff have proven unquestionable, despite having been a subjected to various court cases, including a Constitutional court whose judgement also confirmed the independence of this unit.
Shifting to the relevant institutional framework of oversight already in place, the Committee has since the commencement of the Fifth Parliamentary term in 2014 and in terms of Section 42 (3) of the Constitution and Parliamentary rules executed its oversight function over the DPCI. To this end, the Committee had in excess of 12 oversight engagements with the DPCI. These included DPCI’s budget, discussions the scope of specialised investigations, the unit’s revised guidelines and suspension of provincial head as well as the unit’s annual reports. The Committee also dealt with the unit’s Inspecting Judge matter.
The Committee also made a number of improvement recommendations to the DPCI during the recent Budget Review and Recommendation Reports (BRRR) processes and will monitor implementation of such recommendations and implementation plans thereof.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact:
Mr Temba Gubula
Tel: 021 403 8307
Cell: 078 735 8809 / 081 402 3531
Email: tgubula@parliament.gov.za
