How to reduce police brutality in South Africa

The report examines the systemic failure of police accountability in South Africa, arguing that the existence of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has inadvertently allowed the South African Police Service (SAPS) to neglect its own internal duty to monitor and report on the use of force. It highlights a 'vicious cycle' where high levels of police violence overwhelm the external oversight body, while internal accountability remains minimal due to outdated policies and legal protections like the right to silence. The author recommends that SAPS leadership be held directly accountable by Parliament, that the service implement a comprehensive Use of Force Policy developed by the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service, and that internal reporting systems be strengthened to record all firearm discharges, not just those resulting in death or complaints.

• The South African Police Service (SAPS) lacks a culture of accountability and is currently unable to account for how its members generally use force.
• The establishment of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has provided the SAPS with a justification to avoid internal accountability for the use of force.
• External oversight agencies like IPID cannot effectively reduce police brutality if the police organization itself is resistant to accountability and does not internally monitor force.
• SAPS fails to collect or report comprehensive data on the use of force to Parliament, relying instead on limited IPID data that only covers deaths and specific complaints.
• Legal protections, specifically the right to silence and provisions in the IPID Act, are used by police members to avoid accounting for the use of force during investigations.
• The SAPS continues to rely on Standing Order 251, an apartheid-era directive for investigating firearm discharges, which has not been significantly revised since 1994.
• A comprehensive Use of Force Policy was approved by the Minister of Police in 2018 via the Civilian Secretariat for Police Service (CSPS), but the SAPS has not implemented it.
• IPID is caught in a 'vicious cycle' where it is overwhelmed by an exceptional volume of complex cases because the SAPS does not adequately control the use of force.
• During the first 40 days of the 2020 national lockdown, IPID received 827 cases, 376 of which were linked to lockdown enforcement, including 10 deaths.

APA

Bruce, D. (2020). How to reduce police brutality in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-40.pdf

Chicago

Bruce, David. How to reduce police brutality in South Africa. Institute for Security Studies, 2020. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-40.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Bruce |first1=David |title=How to reduce police brutality in South Africa |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=September 2020 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-40.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{bruce2020how, author = {Bruce, David}, title = {{How to reduce police brutality in South Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-40.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }