Bushbuckridge - The Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) held a community meeting in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga, on Saturday to educate communities about its role as police watchdog.
Delegates from the Human Rights Commission, Public Protector's office, provincial Department of Safety, Security and Liaison, SAPS and Legal Aid South Africa also attended the meeting, which took place in the Oakland Community Hall in the Mathibela tribal authority.
ICD Executive Director Francois Beukman said the purpose of the meeting was to ensure that government services were accessible to people living in rural areas and that communities knew that a structure existed to promote proper police conduct.
"Our main task as the ICD is to monitor the service the SAPS and metro police provide to South Africans by investigating any complaints against them. Cases dealt with by our department include the deaths of people in police custody, rape cases involving police officers, police members who acquire information illegally by making use of unlawful means such as assault, and general complaints of poor service by the police," Beukman explained.
He told the community that the ICD was not "anti-police" but that it wanted to ensure the men and women in blue did their work according to prescribed laws and standards.
"We work together with the police, the community and government departments to ensure that complaints of brutality, criminality and misconduct by police officers do not go unanswered," he said.
Beukman also revealed that the IDC was planning to open a satellite office at the Bushbuckridge Municipality.
"We want to move from being a complaints-driven organisation to one that's more investigative. We hope to introduce the office in September, provided that the finance minister approves the proposed increase of our budget," he said.
