Ipid's shortcoming due to limited resources - analyst
A KwaZulu-Natal-based violence monitor says the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) is in desperate need of more resources to enable it to operate more effectively.
Analyst Mary de Haas has been commenting on the police oversight body's annual report for the 2020/21 financial year.
In KwaZulu-Natal, the number of deaths in police custody has gone up.
Deaths as a result of police action also increased.
"Recently, they have made some arrests. They do seem to be trying harder, but I know perfectly well that a lot of cases are followed up with Ipid have had absolutely no results in terms of medical information about torture and killing.
"So, the key in dealing with this is to get prosecutions and in law you see Ipid has to investigate all of this, serious torture killing. They need more skilled people. They need independent crime scene people."
Nationally, of the 6 122 cases reported to the directorate, 353 were reports of deaths due to police action.
The body has been probing 256 cases of torture.
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