Parliament summons Ipid to account over claims of investigation cover-ups

Parliament is set to haul in the police watchdog over claims that it was manipulating statistics and covering up wrongdoing by cops.

Parliament's portfolio committee on police said in a statement on Thursday that it had resolved to ask the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (Ipid) for a comprehensive briefing on reports of "systemic" statistical manipulation and cover-ups of police criminality by the directorate.

The briefing will take place on October 23.

"The committee is concerned that such insinuations, if correct, undermine Ipid’s legislative role and its mandate of protecting the public against the police," the statement read.

The committee said it would, after the briefing, make a proper determination, followed by appropriate recommendations.

"The committee is averse to making judgement calls before receiving first-hand information on the matter. Nonetheless, the committee views these reports in a serious light and has committed to getting to the bottom of the matter."

TimesLIVE last week reported that an investigation by Viewfinder, a new accountability journalism unit, exposed how underfunding, state capture and statistical manipulation at the directorate failed victims and helped violent criminals in the police service to escape accountability.

South Africans lodged 42,365 criminal complaints against the police between April 2012 and March 2019.

Viewfinder's investigation, TimesLIVE reported, showed that of that number, only 531 Ipid cases resulted in successful criminal prosecutions during the same period.