The provincial public safety and liaison portfolio committee expressed disappointment in a report on police brutality and ordered the Independent Police Investigations Directorate (Ipid) to do a thorough job in its investigations.

The committee has summoned the Ipid to get an update on various cases of police brutality in the province in the recent years.

Some of the cases have received extensive media coverage, like the one of a woman police constable who dragged a man to death in Klerksdorp last year and the one of Morgan Motlhala of Lomanyaneng village, who was dragged by the collar alongside a police car.

Another Lomanyangeng resident, Tshepiso Nebe, died at the hands of police but circumstances around the issue remain sketchy.

At the hearing, the provincial Ipid’s report did not satisfy the committee and a committee member recommended they should call the pathologist who did the post-mortem on the body of Tshepiso Nebe. The state lawyer in the case should also give detailed information on the matter.

The committee was briefed on a recent incident in a Ganyesa village where it is alleged police officers went to a tavern in the area to issue a fine but got involved in a brawl with patrons. The officers allegedly fired shots and one person was fatally wounded.

However, it was not clear what Ipid was doing in these cases because they remained unresolved.

Committee chairperson Mahlakeng Mahlakeng said they were not happy on how the report was drafted as it had inaccuracies with some of the incidents.

“The facts in 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. We are giving them two weeks to put together a comprehensive report,” Mahlakeng said.

Ipid provincial director for investigations, Batseba Motlhale said the directorate would make sure it gave the committee a detailed report on all incidents of police brutality in the province after two weeks.

“We will brief the committee on how we are intending to charge police officers who don’t report brutality incidents on time as it is unlawful according to Section 33 of the Ipid Act,” she said.

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