Cape Town - The Western Cape has the largest percentage of cases of abuse by police officers and the second-highest number of incidents of rape by police, according to the latest report by the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid).
The findings are published in the Ipid’s annual report.
There has, however, been a decrease in the national number of recorded incidents.
The Ipid report looks at crimes committed by police officers - some of which may still be under investigation.
Some of the crimes include rape by a police officer - in some cases where a police officer was on-duty at the time of the crime, death as a result of police action, complaints relating to the discharge of an official firearm as well as complaints of torture or assault against a police officer in the execution of his or her duties.
Nationally, a total of 5 745 cases involving the SAPS and municipal police services were recorded during the 2013/2014 financial year.
There were 6 728 recorded incidents last year.
Just 84 incidents were reported against municipal police, with the remaining 5 661 - 99 percent - against the SAPS.
Of all the recorded cases, the Western Cape had the most cases of assault by police with 1 046 incidents compared to 705 in the Free State, 531 in Gauteng, 368 in KwaZulu-Natal, and the lowest number of 194 in the Northern Cape.
The Western Cape also had 27 deaths in police custody, 34 deaths as a result of police action, 46 cases of official firearms being discharged and 63 cases of other criminal matters or misconduct reported.
Rape by police officers dropped by 17 percent from 146 to 121, with 25 of those in the Western Cape - second to 29 in KwaZulu-Natal. Of the 25 cases reported, nine were committed by police who were on duty and the remaining 16 by off-duty policemen.
The head of the governance crime and justice division of the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), Gareth Newham, said the Ipid statistics were “just a measure of what’s been reported”.
Referring to rape by police officers, he said the vast majority of rapes were not reported - only one in nine.
“So the figure is not a reflection of police rapes, but a reflection of the number of people confident in reporting to the police,” Newham said.
In last year’s report there were 37 incidents of rape by police officers reported in theWestern Cape, but Newham said the decline in this year’s statistic was “worrying” as it was likely to be a sign of the decline of people’s confidence in reporting the crime.
The report states that with 71 percent of the cases involving off-duty police officials, “the state of affairs depicts a picture that raises issues of discipline, which is still lacking when members are off duty”.
Of the 35 on-duty incidents of rape the report said one involved an SAPS member who allegedly “raped a mentally ill person in the bushes”. Another on-duty member allegedly raped a minor “by taking her from her parent under the false pretence of interrogating her at the police station”.
The category listed as “other criminal matters” includes arson, attempted murder, defeating the ends of justice, fraud, harassment, intimidation and robbery. There were a combined 374 recorded incidents in this category - but most of these (304 incidents) were of attempted murder. Some of the categories that showed an increase included torture, which was up by 56 percent.
Criminal convictions of police officers, just four, included a case of culpable homicide at the Langa station resulting in 1 440 hours’ direct imprisonment (or 60 days), another case of culpable homicide in Sea Point resulting in a five-year sentence, murder by a police officer at the Harare station resulting in a 10-year prison sentence, and a case of common assault in Durbanville resulting in one year in jail or a R12 000 fine.
Disciplinary convictions in the Western Cape included dismissal from the service for a robbery in Beaufort West, corrective counselling for common assault in Delft, and suspended dismissal for an attempt to do grievous bodily harm in Mfuleni.
Cape Times