The families of victims of police brutality say they are unable to move on and heal due to little to no movement in investigations into the deaths of their loved ones.
This as the backlog in cases being investigated by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) are on the rise.
At the end of March, Ipid was sitting with a backlog of 24,402 cases.
New and post-decision monitoring (PDM) cases shot up the cases to a staggering 37,116.
In January last year, the backlog was sitting at just over 8,000.
But that number has skyrocketed.
With an investigating unit of only 244 members, including investigators and other personnel, Ipid programme manager Thuso Keefelakae said their investigators were overloaded.
Speaking to parliament’s police committee on Friday, Keefelakae revealed the shocking figures, saying with such a backlog, their scope was limited.
“Of the cases completed in financial year 2021/2022 financial year, 53% where backlog cases.
“Our scope is limited with such a backlog. We inherited 24,402 in the previous financial year. The total PDMs, including our backlog and the cases we have are 37,116 which is a lot. If you can look at PDMs and investigators, one investigator caries 250 cases on average,” Keefelakae.
Echoing Keefelakae’s sentiments, Ipid chief financial officer Patric Setshedi said their unit was labour-intensive and depended on staff to carry out investigations.
Setshedi said their R357m budget presented them with a number of challenges as it did not grow with the same level of commitments Ipid had.
“There is growth annually in terms contractual obligations, annual increase for security, buildings in term of leases but our growth is stagnant,” he said.
Setshedi said three hotspot provinces, Gauteng, Free State and KZN, consumed the biggest chunk of Ipid’s budget.
“The MTEF budget doesn’t make space for expansion of services by Ipid but just a continuation of commitments Ipid had made as well as contractual obligations. We can’t expand services due to the inadequate budget we have.
“We want to improve quality, increase prosecution of our cases and increase our internal capacity,” he said.
Giving a breakdown of the types of cases pursued by Ipid, the department’s performance plan for the 2022/2023 financial year indicated that 67% of cases under investigation were for assault during the previous financial year followed by 15% for the discharge of an official arm, 7% for death due to police action and torture with 6%.
This means families seeking answers will have to wait longer.
Speaking to Sowetan on Sunday, Xolani Adoons said his nephew, Tshepiso Adoons, was shot and killed, allegedly by a senior police officer in Tembisa, on the East Rand, in September 2020.
Tshepiso, 22, who was mentally unstable, was allegedly shot by the officer as he sat in his shack after police had been dispatched to his house after receiving a call to restrain him because he was being aggressive towards his family members.
Adoons said nearly two years later, the family was still in the dark.
The family told Sowetan at the time that the officer had asked him “if he wanted to die because he was going to shoot him”.
“I’m not happy with the way Ipid is handling the case. I engaged with Ipid and was told they are waiting for a report from forensic.
“So far, we’ve been engaged with the detective for the case. Currently, there’s nothing we’ve received from them. I want to reveal anything those people are hiding because every time we see them (SAPS) it brings back those memories. As a family we can’t move on,” Adoons said.
Adoons questioned if ordinary South Africans could get justice, adding that the officer was still on duty.
The family of Kgalatsang von Weilligh in Brits, North West, who was shot in the back by police in October 2018, is also waiting for answers.
Kgalatsang, 19, was in a vehicle that police sprayed with no less than 10 bullets, suspecting it had criminal occupants.
The windows of the vehicle were shattered during the incident, which left Kgalatsang with a bullet wound.
Her grandmother was also in the vehicle, which was being driven by a teacher.
Kgalatsang was shot at the back with a bullet lodged in her lower back, missing her spine, which could have left her paralysed.
Her uncle, Peter, said the Ipid last spoke to them in 2018. “We have never been contacted by the Ipid. The last time we spoke to them is when the case was opened,” Peter said.
He said they were still waiting and remained unclear about where their case is.
“We just don’t know anything We have not even been to court as we’re yet to hear anything,” he said.
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