A case of domestic violence against one of the Cape's top cops has not been reported to the police watchdog Ipid yet.
|||Cape Town - Western Cape police management has failed to explain why a case of domestic violence against one of the province’s top cops has not been reported to the Independent Police Investigating Directorate (Ipid).
A directorate spokesman, Moses Dlamini, said on Wednesday that all assault-related domestic violence cases involving SAPS members had to be reported to the directorate.
Dlamini’s comments come after the Cape Argus revealed that a major-general, based at the police’s provincial headquarters in Green Point, was being investigated for allegedly assaulting a female partner. The woman, who also works for the police, is believed to have been placed in a witness protection programme.
On Tuesday, police confirmed that the matter was being investigated by a senior officer from outside the province. The major-general had not been suspended, but provincial police management viewed the charge in “a very serious light”, she said.
Senior crime researcher at the Institute for Security Studies and former police commissioner Johan Burger said while there was nothing wrong with getting a senior officer from another province to investigate the case, the matter should be reported to the directorate. Burger said provincial police management needed to assess the seriousness of the crime before suspending the senior officer.
Community Safety MEC Dan Plato was aware of the investigation.
clayton.barnes@inl.co.za
Cape Argus