Workshop Report: Understanding the IPID Mandate for Addressing Police Corruption
During August 2010, the National Assembly Portfolio Committee on Police ended its deliberations on the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Bill. The new legislation is a welcome development for those wanting greater accountability from the police service, as it seeks to reorganise and strengthen the body currently known as the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD). The legislation redefines the way that the new structure, to be called the Independent Police Investigative Directorate, will investigate incidents of police corruption and systemic police corruption.
To prepare for this new mandate, the ICD and the Crime and Justice Programme (CJP) at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) jointly hosted a national workshop on 16 and 17 September 2010 in Durban. The workshop objective was to explore how the soon-to-be-established IPID should interpret and engage with its mandate. This report presents the inputs and deliberations of the five workshop sessions.
In the first session, which aimed to provide context, three researchers spoke about the nature and extent of police corruption in South Africa and offered overviews on how to address the challenge. ISS researcher Andrew Faull reviewed police anti-corruption initiatives in South Africa post-1994 and sketched some of the conceptual and practical challenges the IPID might face in fulfilling its new mandate. Dr Julia Hornberger, of the Wits University’s Forced Migration Studies Programme, presented findings that revealed how police culture, and the dynamics of the relationship between police officers and communities, can result in corruption. The presentation from Julie Berg, of the Centre for Criminology at the University of Cape Town, called for a paradigm shift in the way that the government understands and tackles police corruption.
The second session heard insights from people with direct experience of investigating corruption in the public sector and the police. The speakers were Claudia O’Brian, a project manager at the Special Investigations Unit (SIU); Colonel Siane Lebakeng of the SAPS Anti-Corruption Unit in the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI); and Superintendent Sbonelo Mchunu of the Inspectorate of the Durban Metropolitan Police Service.
In the third session, the ICD Investigations head Tommy Tshabalala reflected on the successes and difficulties experienced by the ICD in its corruption investigations in previous years.
During the fourth session, participants split up into six groups, and each group was given a hypothetical scenario (case study) of police corruption. The task was to discuss a number of questions relating to the case and propose how the IPID could approach the matter. This was followed by a plenary session with feedback from each group.
In the fifth and final session Dr Monique Marks, of the Community Development Programme at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, summed up and reflected on the key issues raised in the workshop.
