OP-ED: Just how deep does Ipid rot go? KwaZulu-Natal case suggests ‘very deep’ By Vanessa Burger
The torture and murder of Zinakile Fica in March 2014 should have been a straightforward investigation ending with prosecution and the removal of bad cops from an increasingly dirty system. But according to its annual reports, over the past few years, the Independent Police Investigative Directorate has achieved a conviction rate of less than 1% for contact crimes.
In December 2017, the DPP declined to prosecute Fica’s alleged killers, particularly the officer in charge of the operation, who, it is alleged, was present when Fica died and most likely gave the torture order or actively participated in the interrogation. Major questions remain unanswered.
But it was only after the slaughter had bled across the province and included an embarrassingly high number of ANC politicians that a power shift around the time of the ANC’s 54Police then allegedly took Zinakile Fica and three other residents to this building in Isipingo where Fica was allegedly tubed to death. Photo: Vanessa Burger
Mzingisi and Sandla – who were handcuffed together – asked to use the toilet. The officer who had escorted them made them wait a long time before returning them to the office. On their return, they were met by a woman who told them she was from the Ipid. She spoke to them briefly, asked why they were there, took their details and left soon afterwards.
Blood and stomach contents samples obtained by the state pathologist were sent for forensic analysis. We later discovered the case number contained in the covering letter to the laboratory was incorrect. Meanwhile, we discovered the Ipid was conducting two separate investigations – Fica’s inquest and Anele’s assault – using different investigators who appeared not to communicate with each other or share common evidence relevant to both investigations. The Ipid persistently ignored repeated requests to consolidate both dockets under one investigator and the parallel probes continued, ultimately undermining the successful prosecution of both.
Not wanting to put Sandla and Mzingisi through further trauma and potential danger which renewed attempts to register their assault could likely result, we stupidly assumed the Ipid would include investigation of their alleged abuse as part of the Fica probe. They had after all clearly described their beatings in statements provided to Fica’s investigator who had confirmed she had also obtained a copy of Anele’s statement from the Umlazi SAPS. But maybe not.
On 29 October I received a missed call from Anele. When I called him back he told me he had received a voice message from the investigator giving him the Ipid reference number and requesting that Anele call him back. Clearly agitated, Anele told me he had no airtime to call anyone, in fact he had no money at all, still had no job and nowhere to stay. He did not know Gauteng and certainly did not know where the local Ipid office was. In any case, he could not afford transport to get there.
Five days later the independent pathologist submitted his report to the Ipid. His findings concluded that although Fica had an underlying heart condition consistent with someone of his age and build, Fica had died of a heart attack most likely as a result of being placed under extreme physiological trauma and stress such as that induced by asphyxiation.
Maharaj, who signed off on the report, did not appear to find it absurd that according to her latest feedback, the police allegedly tortured Anele to reveal Fica’s whereaboutsAnd these were not the only cock-ups. Another four torture cases I had forwarded on behalf of victims to the Ipid for investigation were similarly mutilated. And my cases were not the only ones.
According to the Moerane Commission report, in relation to Fica’s investigation, Amar Maharaj alleged that:The SAPS case management system reflects the date of the incident as being 14/03/2014 yet the docket was only picked up by the Ipid on 5/08/2015, almost 17 months later, to commence investigation.”
Yet Maharaj maintained: “It is not my intention to cause Ipid harm but I must act in the public interest. In KZN, cases are closed en-masse at the end of the month just to meet statistical targets, and people get bonuses for closing the cases.
McBride was reinstated after the 2016 landmark Constitutional Court ruling found sections of the Ipid Act were inconsistent with the Constitution – a police minister should not meddle with the Ipid. The court also ruled that the Ipid’s independence was not sufficiently protected by existing legislation and gave parliament two years to fix the faults.
This was evidenced during Ipid head of investigations Matthews Sesoko’s presentation to the Moerane Commission of Inquiry into KZN’s political killings in December 2017 . While it remains to be seen if the ANC’s conference signified a watershed in the State Capture project, Sesoko’s testimony revealed an under-resourced and poorly-supported institution, forced to cherry pick cases it hoped would have the most impact.
So how serious really was the post-1994 dispensation about dismantling the unholy symbiosis that exists between law enforcement, syndicated crime, and powerful political and private business interests that McBride has since revealed in detail during his testimony before the Zondo Commission into State Capture?
Again the prosecutor asked: “Before I can finalise my decision I need to establish if the deceased, given his pre-existing cardiac disease could nevertheless have suffered a heart attack in the absence of asphyxiation? If he had merely been verbally interrogated could he have not still experienced fear and anxiety that could have led to his cardiac arrest?”
According to the witness Sandla, at some stage in 2017 the Ipid investigator took him to Pietermaritzburg to meet the senior state prosecutor where he was interviewed and asked to verify aspects of his 2014 statement. I eventually received a letter from the senior state prosecutor stating that: “My decision in this matter was finalised in December 2017. The investigating officer has advised me that at the end of December 2017 she telephonically spoke to the wife of the deceased and informed her of my decision. Should the wife of the deceased require any further information she may directly contact the investigating officer.
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