CSPS & IPID Annual Performance Plans 2022/23; with Minister

Meeting report

The Chairperson said there would be a briefing on two budget votes, one from Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) and the second one from the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID). The Committee also raised other issues and requests to CSPS about provincial-specific information on particular priority areas.

Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS) 2022/23 Annual Performance Plan (APP) and budget allocation
Ms Itumeleng Moagi, Director: Strategic Management, CSPS, led the presentation starting with the overall budget. The allocation was R150 million, a 0.8% increase from the adjusted appropriation from the previous financial year. Compensation of employees is budgeted at R103.7 million, with goods and services at R44.2 million. The CSPS has not changed any aspects of its mandate and the institutional policies and strategies governing the five-year period, even with the 2020/25 Strategic Plan review. The CSPS has considered the National Annual Strategic Plan (NASP), which identifies the reduction of violent crime as one of the country’s top ten priorities.

The impact of COVID-19 did not hamper the CSPS from making notable progress toward achieving the medium-term priorities and five-year targets concerning the CSPS's initially identified outcome indicators. One of the achievements is the finalisation and approval of the Integrated Crime and Violence Prevention Strategy (ICVPS), which provides a coordinated and integrated plan to prevent crime and violence.
The CSPS managed to sustain institutional performance consistently above 80%, which led to a clean audit for the 2020/21 year. CSPS priorities for the medium term include implementing the emergent CSPS theory of change and improving the relationship between communities and the police.

CSPS annual priorities were broken down into four programmes, further by their specific outcomes.

Programme One includes having a vacancy rate of not more than 7%, implementing the Human Capital Strategy and making payments to creditors within 30 days.

Programme Two has two new outputs, implementation of Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) and response plans on the izimbizo / public participation programmes held to promote community safety through feedback to communities.

Part Two of the presentation dealt with the responses to the Committee’s questions. On the question of the mandate of provincial secretariats, in supporting the mandate of the CSPS, provincial secretariats:
carry out police station oversight visits to monitor police performance,
monitor police conduct and investigate complaints against the police
conduct research on policing and safety issues
conduct crime prevention initiatives and
facilitate strengthening of community-police relations.

The provincial budget allocation for the provincial secretariats shows some noticeable variances in the allocated budget in some provinces, such as the one in the Western Cape, where there was a transfer of R400 million from the Law Enforcement Advancement Programme (LEAP) to the provincial secretariat programme.

In addition to Domestic Violence Act (DVA) monitoring, provincial secretariats carry out a number of monitoring and evaluation (M and E) projects which are also included in the presented budget allocations. The allocations also include compensation of employees and goods and services, except for Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Northern Cape provinces. Considering the presented budget amounts, it is evident that the budget utilised for service delivery in the majority of the provinces is very minimal. This negatively impacts the ability of provincial secretariats to effectively monitor and support South African Police Services (SAPS).

On the Impact of COVID-19 on resourcing and current vacancies, some included the limited access to police stations, where virtual platforms were used to ensure interaction with the police and a limited number of visits were conducted. Filling vacant posts was also affected as the process did not move as fast as anticipated, because of the impact of COVID-19.

On the level of DVA compliance provincially, the main challenges identified during DVA monitoring visits include the following: poor maintenance of records, such as registers not properly completed; protection orders not properly filed; and the absence of relevant documents in patrol vehicles.

On the question of monitoring SAPS implementation of IPID recommendations, the IPID Recommendations Forum, comprised of CSPS, SAPS, and IPID, has been established at national and provincial levels.

Regarding gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF), the CSPS and provincial secretariats budget have catered for GBVF programmes as part of funds allocated for monitoring and evaluation and crime prevention/anti-crime campaigns focusing on GBVF. The departments also ensure implementation of the National Strategic Plan of GBVF, with specific focus on Pillars One, Two, and Three.

The question of the efficacy of forensic science laboratories and assessing performance of the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) entails analysis of the case finalisation rates against pre-determined benchmarks across various case categories. An important indicator used is the case backlog at hand at reporting. The huge backlog was crippling the function of the FSL. A Special Project on Ring-fenced Backlog was set up and this is how it has contributed to reducing the backlog since June 2021. As at December 2021, the CSPS saw a reduction of 65% and 76% as at March 2022.

On the strategy to reduce civil claims against the police, the CSPS undertook an analysis of the policy framework of SAPS civil litigation process (SAPS National Instruction 25 of 2019). The analysis also reflected the management of civil claims lodged against the Minister of Police, the root causes and contributing factors to civil claims, and the interventions for managing civil claims in the SAPS. This compels the SAPS to devise a strategy to strengthen its discipline and consequence management processes and ensure cost recovery from members.

On the SAPS crowd control question, the CSPS developed policies approved in 2011 and 2018, respectively, as the policies serve to guide the SAPS in its operations and towards crowd management.

On the update on Community Policing Forum (CPF) functionality, to capacitate the CPF members, the CSPS concluded a Memorandum of Understanding with WITS University to provide accredited training to the CPFs through a Safety and Security Sector Education and Training Authority (SASSETA) funded programme. Thus far, 80 CPF members have been trained. As at December 2021, there were 1 153 established CPF structures of which 57% were found to be functional.

Upcoming legislation for 2022/23 includes the Criminal Law (Forensic Procedures) Amendment Bill, the Protection of Constitutional Democracy against Terrorist and Related Activities Amendment Bill, the South African Police Service Amendment Bill, and the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act Regulations.

Mr Bheki Cele, Minister of Police, referred to the CPF functionality slide in the presentation and said the noise from communities is becoming louder with the assistance of CPFs. The Ministry will have to work around this and find ways to assist the communities at a certain time. The CSPS is doing its utmost best and an extra amount of money of about R100 million has been given to 30 stations, starting from four to ten per station.

Discussion
Mr I Sileku (DA, Western Cape) asked for clarity from the CSPS on why there are budget cuts across the board and the minimum level of compliance for a station to meet to provide an acceptable level of service to the community.

Mr E Mthethwa (ANC, KwaZulu-Natal) asked the Minister what the strategy to ensure the vacancies are filled is; and if the CSPS could simplify the part of the report on the disciplinary action taken against police officers.

Ms N Nkosi (ANC, Mpumalanga) asked what programmes and timeframes were put in place to ensure vacancies of Provincial Secretariats are filled and what measures are in place to ensure each police station in every province has a victim friendly room. She asked about the no disciplinary steps for SAPS on IPID recommendations; asked which interventions of the CSPS are working and which are not; asked which challenges there are and how these can be overcome to ensure effective implementation of recommendations. She asked for more information to be provided on implementing the GBVF brigades programme and how and why it is working well in Gauteng.

Ms M Bartlett (ANC, Northern Cape) asked the CSPS to explain the current extent of alignment and indicate how the research will assist in achieving greater alignment. She asked how the findings and recommendations will be implemented, how SAPS conducts the assessments on SAPS complaints management, how reliable the SAPS data is on complaints for this assessment and what the main reasons for the budget cuts in the provinces are. She queried how the CSPS will implement measures to ensure work continues despite these budget cuts. She asked which measures will be implemented to ensure that the CSPS is still able to effectively monitor and support SAPS despite the minimal budget.

Ms C Visser (DA, North West) asked about the SAPS assessment and what the CSPS will do, especially in the rural communities, to ensure investigations of cases are completed, followed up on, and completed professionally.

The Chairperson asked for more information on increased participation in interdepartmental and intergovernmental fora, specifically how this is achieved practically and on a provincial basis. She wanted more clarity on the processes of addressing the backlogs faced by the CSPS and asked what the CSPS is doing to ensure there is a good working relationship between SAPS and the communities when it comes to CPFs.

Mr K Motsamai (EFF, Gauteng) asked, in Sotho, what the Minister and his Department plan to do about collecting illegal firearms in areas such as Katlehong and Sebokeng, as communities live in fear because of gunshots heard every night and people getting shot daily.

Minister’s response
Minister Cele said the budget issue is across the board. For example, from 2016 until now, the police budget has been cut by about R34 billion. The Department is beginning to work better with provinces and requests have been made to take the Secretariat seriously. He outlined the practicality of the interdepartmental achievement as follows: with MINMEC, the Ministry goes to provinces for two days, starting with the selected stations in those areas. On the first day, the Ministry practically visits the stations with the Secretariat and the IPID. On the second day, the Ministry discusses different issues identified and how the Department and the Ministry can work together to address matters such as the brigade in the Eastern Cape clean-up. MECs lead the visits to find out the progress on cases and other challenges faced. Achievement came about through the police, provinces, MEC and Provincial Secretariats working together. Gauteng is performing well on this.

Contract management was literally undermined at laboratories, especially contracts for maintenance of machines. It was found that 16 contracts expired and no one cared to renew these. From now on, contracts will have to be renewed every six months before it expires. In a Cape Town laboratory, during a visit, it was found all cubicles were dark because there were no personnel. There were interns, and a request was made for the interns to be brought back to assist. The contracts, the maintenance of machines, and the staff working contributed to the reductions mentioned in the presentation. There was an overtime money issue which was budgeted for then, and instead of doing eight hours, the Department is currently doing 16-hour shifts. The impact of this is not going to be very quick. For example, the laboratory in Port Elizabeth (Gqeberha) is currently under construction. This could take 24 to 36 months to complete. The KZN laboratory has flooded four times, including during the current floods. The Department is now working on having another laboratory in a new building in KZN.

CSPS response
Mr Takalani Ramaru, Acting Secretary of Police, said the requirement is for stations to comply 100% or at least 70% to 99% but only a few were at 100% compliance. Through the compliance forum, measures are being discussed to assist stations in achieving the compliance level. At a national level, there is a Human Resources committee that ensures there is proper planning to ensure vacancies are filled within a reasonable time. The internal promotion of staff to vacancies leads to no movement in the vacancy levels as one staff member moves from one position to another, leaving another vacancy. The CSPS is doing everything it can to fill vacancies within three months.

Through the discussions with IPID and SAPS, it was recommended there is an alignment between the SAPS disciplinary regulations and the IPID Act. This recommendation was agreed on and the CSPS believes this will help with the disciplinary steps on IPID recommendations. On the victim friendly rooms, the CSPS is trying its best to push for every station to have victim-friendly rooms (VFRs) and will keep following up on stations which do not yet have VFRs. Gauteng can be requested to give a presentation on the GBV brigade, which can be sent to the Committee.

In assessing the complaints, there are two processes followed. The first process involves dealing with the complaints sent to the CSPS by members of the public, which includes gathering all the necessary information to resolve the matter. The second process is where the CSPS assesses capacity of the police in resolving the complaints reported to it, and a report is produced on this. The CSPS has access to the SAPS database and believes it is accurate and up to date.

The priority is always on the top 30 stations when the CSPS writes down its plans, mindful that other stations cannot be ignored. There is a plan to conduct a second census of police stations to deal with the cases not being investigated in rural areas.

Mr Mvuseni Mnqayi, Provincial Secretariat: KZN, confirmed the responses given by the Minister and Acting Secretary. The CSPS is utilising the integrated approach in the province of KZN in doing its work. There are sittings of evaluations on a monthly and quarterly basis, particularly on the GBV related matters where recommendations are made and there is cooperation from senior management in the province.

Minister’s concluding remarks
Minister Cele thanked Committee Members for their contributions and assured Members the Department would be working closely with the new National Commissioner of the South African Police to consider everything raised in the presentation. There are many arrests which become illegal, impacting on the police and the other arms of justice. The CSPS is working very hard on the victim friendly rooms and police stations do have these, but some are not at the expected standard. During a visit to a police station in Durban Central the previous month, the Minister was unimpressed by its VFR, as it was a huge police station.

The Minister urged the provincial commissioners and secretaries to meet the standard of the people they served regarding the VFRs. The Minister said GBV is a major issue in the country, and the numbers of people raped in their own homes are at 50%. In the last quarter, 11 000 women were raped in South Africa and 50% were raped in their own homes. The Department is urging the police to take the GBV matter seriously and is working very hard with communities to try its best to address the matter.

Independent Police Investigative Directorate APP and Budget Allocation 2022/2023
Ms Jennifer Ntlatseng, Executive Director, IPID, said there are no additional resources for the 2022 Medium Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF). Therefore, the Directorate's priority areas will be funded through internal budget reprioritisation. Compensation of employees remains the Directorate's largest spending area, accounting for 67.1 per cent (R968.7 million). The Directorate was able to identify and reprioritise over R100 million in the previous MTEF period from its limited allocation for the implementation of Section 23 of the IPID Act as directed by court. Investigations of 4121 cases were completed in the 2021/2022 financial year, with 53% (2116) being backlog cases.
  
Key Priorities for the 2022/23 financial year

1.Amendment of IPID Act still in progress driven by the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service.
2.Strengthen investigative capacity and improve the quality of investigations.
3.Implementation of IPID Protection Policy to mitigate possible threats against investigators.
4.Development of framework for case screening and prioritisation of cases.
5.Finalise the development and signing of MoU with the Military Ombuds and the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development.
6.Continuous reprioritisation of personnel for optimal utilisation of limited resources.
7.Appointment of contract workers to assist with contingency liability.
8.Source a new Case Management System.
9.Finalisation of key Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects

Mr Patrick Setshedi, Acting CFO, presented the MTEF budget and provincial breakdown. The total allocation for 2022/23 is R357 million. The budget growth for IPID, according to the MTEF, is 0.8% in 2022/23, 0.3% in 2023/24, and 4.3% in 2024/25. The Department welcomes the allocation. However, the main concern is the lack of growth in its budget, particularly to cover some of the regulated annual increases on services such as security, cleaning, and office leases.

As per the Committee's request, a provincial budget breakdown was presented, with Gauteng, KZN, and Western Cape representing a significant portion of the budget.

Over the medium term, the Directorate will focus on:
- improving the quality of its investigations, increasing access to its services, and continuing to renew ICT infrastructure through recruitment of investigation quality assurers at a total cost of R3.4 million over the medium term to improve the quality of case dockets referred to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). -Partnering with provincial departments of Community Safety in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape, and Northern Cape to establish regional and district offices. These partnerships will mainly involve sharing office space, data and information, collaborating on investigations, and monitoring police performance.
-Implementation of an ICT infrastructure plan in phases over the MTEF period to improve security and minimise risk of infiltration by unwanted agents into ICT systems. 

Strategic Plan 2020-2025

Ms Innocentia Hlalele-Lekhalanyane, Deputy Director, IPID, spoke about the four programmes of the Strategic Plan 2020-2025.
Programme One: Administration with Outcomes and Effective and Efficient Administrative Support.
Programme Two: Investigation and Information Management with Outcomes and Reduced Level of Police Criminality and Misconduct.
Programme Three: Legal and Investigation Advisory Services with Outcomes, Department’s Legal Interests protected.
Programme Four: Compliance Monitoring and Stakeholder Management and Adjustments to Strategic Plan 2020-2025 made to the three outcome indicators on Programme Two, where the targets to reduced level of police criminality and misconduct outcome were increased.

Annual Performance Plan 2021/2022

For the 2022/23 APP, Programme One now has nine indicators. Two indicators were discontinued and four new indicators were introduced in line with the Gender Responsive Planning, Budgeting, Monitoring, Evaluation and Auditing Framework. Programme Two has a total of 13 output indicators. There are no indicators which were introduced or discontinued. Key interventions were identified to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and quality of investigations before the review of indicators for the core programme. MTEF targets were adjusted for six output indicators, and this includes the delays there were in obtaining technical reports, the current workload, and capacity. The Department has set a 90% target for 2022/23 for Programme Two’s outcome for the medium term, and this target was the same in the 2021/22 term.  

Programme Three has four output indicators contributing to the attainment of outcomes in the Strategic Plan. There were no changes to the indicators and MTEF targets. The medium-term targets for the “Department’s legal interests protected” outcome ranged between 70% and 100% for the 2022/23 year for the various output indicators. Programme Four has eight output indicators contributing to attainment of outcomes in the Strategic Plan. Changes to the output indicators:
Number of station lecture awareness training conducted per year is now a stand-alone indicator.
Number of docket inspections conducted per year will be monitored at an operational level.
 
Provincial Interests in Strategic Plan and Annual Performance Plan

All provincial offices contribute to the attainment of the five-year targets for each of the outcome indicators. For the provincial contribution to Programme Two targets, Western Cape, because of its workload, will be contributing 826 to ensure the APP targets on the mandate of IPID are attained. It is followed by Free state with 680 and Gauteng with 506. For “Assault”, the contribution is 2569 for all provinces, of which the overall performance will be 4018.

Current Provincial Vacancies, Challenges in Staffing, Resource and Key Achievements

Ms Ntlatseng said there are personal assistants needed in KZN and Free State. Provincial heads are needed in KZN, Mpumalanga, and Northern Cape, with senior investigators needed in Northern Cape and KZN. Investigators are needed in Free State, KZN, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Gauteng. The following challenges were noted:

-Capacity personnel constraints, which also take account of a high case workload: the Department baseline allocation has been reduced over the 2021 MTEF period. The budget cut was mainly in the compensation of employees, which impacted the ability and capacity of the Directorate to carry out its constitutional mandate.

The filling of posts was negatively affected by the budget cuts. All vacant posts in the establishment were reprioritised to accommodate the reduction of the budget baseline, which resulted in filling vacant posts being put on hold. There was also long distance travel because of the vastness of the majority of provinces. The response time to crime scenes is not satisfactory because the Department does not have a footprint in all provincial districts. Some of the key achievements in the provinces highlighted were the launch of access and rural awareness strategy, the total of 11 new offices established in three provinces, and investigations of 4018 cases completed, including the backlog cases.

Cases being investigated

Mr Thuso Keefelakae, Head of Investigations, said the total intake of cases in the previous financial year was 5 295. IPID had 12 714 active cases as at the end of the financial year 2021/22, which were carried over to the current financial year. Of the 12 714 active cases reported, there were mainly assault cases, followed by discharge of an official firearm with 1853 cases, death resulting from police action with 925 cases, torture with 721 cases, and other criminal/misconduct matters at 203 cases. Post decision monitoring cases were 24372. Five provinces with the highest workload, both active and post-decision monitoring (PDM) cases are Gauteng with 9 477, followed by the Western Cape with 7 262, KZN with 5 712, Eastern Cape with 4 136, and Free State with 3 019 cases.

IPID Recommendations: Level of SAPS Compliance

Ms Mariaan Geerdts, Director: Provincial Coordination, said 182 disciplinary cases were initiated, out of 383 an amount of 206 were awaiting feedback, which comes to a total of 771 negative recommendations made. IPID forwarded 2 555 recommendations to SAPS for the period 2021/22, of which 771 recommended disciplinary action, and 1 784 recommended no disciplinary steps be taken. Of the 206 disciplinary outcomes, 97 guilty, no steps taken were 59, not guilty were 32, and matters withdrawn were 18. Of the 771 recommendations forwarded, IPID received 182 initiations according to Section 30(a) and of this number, 206 were completed according to Section 30(c). Compliance is, therefore, 50%, amounting to 88 out of 771.

Update on the Working Relationship with the Military Ombuds

Ms Ntlatseng said the MoU is being finalised and is anticipated to be signed by the end of the financial year. The Department will continue to provide the required support to the civilian Secretariat on the IPID Bill process. There are regular engagements with the Department and the forensic science laboratory in SAPS to fast-track the technical reports.

Discussion
Mr G Michalakis (DA, Free State) said it is concerning to see the IPID budget as the increases are not sufficient. Inflation is between three to four percent and the workload has increased from the previous years. He asked the Minister if he thinks South Africa has a problem with police misconduct and police brutality.

Mr Mthethwa said he did not see a strategy or budget that talks to IPID having stand-alone offices in provinces other than always relying on the SAPS offices. He asked when the Department will engage on this; asked the Minster what type of qualifications the Department is targeting and which criteria are used for the quality assurance positions.

Ms Bartlett asked the reason for backlog cases and how it is addressed, provinces accounting for most of the backlog of cases and why and how many contract workers will be appointed, for how long, and the cost of this. She asked how the Department would go about sourcing the new case management system and why it was necessary.
On the office space, which was reported as a concern last year, she asked at which stage IPID was securing the office space, currently used as a provincial government department, and asked if it has had any challenges.

On improving ICT infrastructure, she asked what the underlying cause of threats from this initiative is and the nature of the plan to ensure the security of information is improved.

She said the Department should provide details of its ICT plans on the ICT plan, including what number of computers were replaced to date.

Ms Nkosi asked for clarity on the significant reduction in the Department’s target for the number of investigations of rape by a police officer. She asked for the reasons and what was done about non-compliance reported in Mpumalanga; what the impact on investigations resulting from the unrests in KZN and Gauteng are; and why the post-decision monitoring cases are so high. She asked what was being done to finalise these cases and if there was sufficient capacity to address the provinces with the highest workload.

Mr Motsamai asked how cases opened against police officers are dismissed where there is clear evidence of assault or rape. He gave an example of an assault case he reported, which was dismissed even though he had the medical reports and evidence. He asked for clarity on this.

Mr Sileku asked if the Department has sufficient capacity to do what is expected.

The Chairperson asked what the cost of containment measures taken are and if it is sufficient to address the budget constraints within IPID. The Chairperson also asked how confident the Department is it will reach its targets, the reasons for the SAPS compliance being 50%, and what is being done to improve the implementation of recommendations. What were the NPA's main reasons for declining to prosecute cases? What is IPID doing to remedy this? What is IPID doing to attend to the 1 853 active cases of discharge of firearms and why is the figure so high?

Minister’s response
Minister Cele said the question of the budget being generic is one the Ministry and the Department are unable to answer. IPID's budget does not come close to the budget the Department is monitoring. IPID will have to be independent at some point and quality assurance should be prioritised. Prosecutors and the police should try their best to work together and not fight in court. All issues should be resolved before going to court and prosecutors should avoid ridiculing the police in court. South African police work under violent conditions and have to act in the right manner depending on the situation. Police brutality is a concern as police officers are murdered every month in South Africa and it is important to consider the rights of police officers as well.

IPID response
Ms Ntlatseng said IPID does not come close to SAPS as SAPS has 180 000 members and there is an increase of 10 000 members to be recruited. IPID only has a capacity of 400 members. Out of the 400, 170 are investigators, which causes the challenge of backlog and the Department really needs the budget and capacity. The focus is on increasing the number of investigators to deal with the backlog and the active cases. The quality of investigations is very critical. Therefore the budget will allow the Department to investigate cases with quality. IPID does have its own offices, but it is not enough. Therefore there is a collaboration with the Department of Community Safety to assist with office accommodation. For recruitment of quality assurers, the criteria are for people who have legal experience.

There were challenges accessing the crime scenes on the KZN, unrest, and most of the crime scenes were tampered with and could not be reconstructed properly. Once cases are handed over to the NPA, there is nothing IPID can do aside from following up on the case's outcome. IPID is doing its best by going to stations to conduct education awareness sessions with SAPS members. There is insufficient capacity to discharge the Department’s functions and the budget is never enough to address the backlogs. IPID developed catchup plans made by various units and provinces to monitor performance, meet targets, and address challenges. There is a challenge in addressing the 50% compliance with recommendations and it would be better if the Department were part and parcel of the disciplinary process operated by the police.

Mr Keefelakae said certain provinces, such as KZN, have the highest backlog, followed by Gauteng, Western Cape, and Eastern Cape. The provinces account for about 70% of active cases. The challenge is that when focusing on the backlog, the intake of cases to investigate makes it difficult to finish up on those backlog cases. IPID has a team that goes out to provinces to check on the cases declined by the NPA and look into what other reasons these cases have been declined or withdrawn might be. Currently, there are no active cases of rape in custody, as all cases have been finalised, which is why there is a reduction in the figure.

In some instances, the police were not aware the suspect was a police officer and IPID would only be informed after a month or after the police did its investigations. The moment a case is completed, it falls into the PDMs. The more work is done, the more the PDMs increases. This explains the high figure as there is a buildup effect. On other cost containment measures, certain steps are taken to ensure the available resources are utilised well. IPID previously rented vehicles for investigators to do their work, then realised it is more expensive to rent vehicles. Therefore, the Department returned all rented vehicles and is currently using the Department’s owned vehicles.

Ms Nomfanelo Vacu, Director: Investigations & Legal Advisory, replied the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA) had put a restraint on extending personnel by employing permanent staff. Currently, two officers are dealing with litigation. At the rate at which litigation is increasing within IPID, it has become clear it is impossible to address all matters with two officers efficiently. It has become necessary to consider the appointment of contract workers, particularly people experienced in litigation. An assessment was done into the work the contract workers will contribute to, such as reducing or attending to some litigation matters to address the contingent liability.

Mr Setshedi replied the current case management system used was procured a long time ago and since this period, the contract has not been reviewed. National Treasury has raised the challenge of the Department not being able to have an indefinite contract. How the contract was procured was another area where the Treasury raised challenges. As a result, there was a decision to procure a new contract. During the Executive Director’s visits to all provinces, most of the investigators raised concerns about the current system, as investigators could not complete cases on time. IPID hoped the new system making things easier but noted it would be expensive to procure it as it is privately owned. There will have to be repriorisation of resources and other alternatives will be considered to fund the procurement of the new system.

Ms Nomkhosi Netsianda, Chief Director: Corporate Services, replied 193 laptops were procured but this is not enough. More will be procured during the current financial year. The Department had to upgrade its VPN line connecting provinces to the national office because as there is expansion in the organisation, the traffic on the line becomes congested and the system will become slow. There was also a problem with email server space, which was becoming small and an upgrade was needed to ensure smooth communication with external stakeholders.

Regarding the case management system, another challenge was the system is privately owned and IPID has to pay a certain fee to the owners every year. Whenever enhancements need to be made to the system, it becomes very expensive. Procurement of a new system will ease the financial strain on the Department.

Mr Michalakis said he acknowledged police often work under extreme circumstances and are respected. However, when looking at misconduct perpetrated by police, no one rapes someone out of self-defence, and no one tortures someone out of self-defence - there is no excuse for these types of misconduct by police. This issue must be acknowledged and IPID needs to be capacitated enough to perform its function to the best of its abilities.

Minister Cele said the misconduct raised by Mr Michalakis was indeed not excusable and there must be consequences for such behaviour.

The meeting was adjourned.