JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng — The question of how South Africa can meaningfully confront police brutality has returned to the national spotlight following damning testimonies at the Nkabinde inquiry, which exposed a series of controversial police operations linked to the deaths of several KwaZulu-Natal taxi owners. Professor Peter Jordi of the Wits Law Clinic says the legal architecture meant to hold officers accountable is riddled with obstacles that, in practice, protect perpetrators far more than victims.
The Prosecution Problem: Beyond a Reasonable Doubt
Speaking in an in-depth analysis of the crisis, Prof. Jordi explained that criminal prosecution of police officers faces a steep evidentiary threshold. The state bears the onus of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and in cases of police brutality, the available witnesses are frequently unreliable — or are the very officers implicated.
He pointed to a widely publicised incident in which SAPS VIP Protection Unit officers were filmed assaulting members of the public. Despite the existence of video footage, the officers emerged “scotch-free” from a disciplinary inquiry. Prof. Jordi noted that the prosecution appeared unable to prove the origin of the video evidence, which placed its admissibility in doubt.
“Police brutality happens in spaces where there may be no witnesses, or the witnesses may be the police themselves,” Prof. Jordi observed, underscoring the structural difficulty of building a criminal case.
Civil Claims: An Easier but Time-Sensitive Path
Prof. Jordi suggested that families of victims may find a more viable route to justice through civil litigation against the Minister of Police, where the standard of proof is a balance of probabilities rather than beyond a reasonable doubt.
However, he cautioned that strict timelines apply. Claimants have just three years to institute proceedings by serving a summons on the Minister of Police. Before that, letters of demand must be addressed to both the Provincial Commissioner of Police and the National Commissioner of Police within six months — a window that can be extended but often catches grieving families off guard.
Referencing the financial devastation suffered by families who lost breadwinners in the KwaZulu-Natal operations — including the collapse of the deceased’s business — Prof. Jordi said such losses could, in principle, be compensated through civil damages. He added that several of the cases highlighted in recent reporting would likely have been “winnable” had civil litigation been instituted promptly.
The critical complication, he stressed, is that many of the incidents under scrutiny are now more than 20 years old. Civil claims would be time-expired, and criminal prosecution would be equally fraught because witnesses have died and memories have faded.
Calls for Ex Gratia Payments
For families locked out of the courts by the passage of time, Prof. Jordi proposed that the President or the Minister of Police could make an ex gratia payment to those who suffered severe wrongs. “Perhaps out of the goodness of his heart, the President could see fit to compensate them to some extent — at least bring some justice to those families,” he said.
IPID’s Structural and Operational Failures
Prof. Jordi highlighted the serious challenges facing the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), the body tasked with probing police misconduct. He cited financial constraints, structural deficiencies, operational limitations, and a persistent lack of cooperation from the SAPS itself.
Investigators, he noted, have struggled to access crime scenes while evidence is still fresh. Building a case requires ballistics expertise and forensic access to firearms to link weapons to specific shootings — resources that IPID often lacks.
As of roughly a year ago, IPID was contending with approximately 15,000 outstanding cases amid these capacity constraints.
One investigative advantage does exist: every police vehicle is fitted with a tracker. Prof. Jordi confirmed he has used tracker reports to win cases in which police denied being present at a scene, effectively producing a digital “fingerprint” of their attendance.
Citizen Video as a Tool for Accountability
Drawing a parallel with the United States, Prof. Jordi urged South Africans to record police misconduct on their cell phones. “So long as you can prove those videos, so long as the person who took them can give evidence about what they saw, they have enough courage to ensure that justice is done,” he said, calling on citizens to stand as witnesses.
Executive and SAPS Leadership “Clearly Don’t” Prioritise the Issue
Asked whether members of the executive and SAPS management treat police brutality with the seriousness it demands, Prof. Jordi was unequivocal: “No, they don’t. They clearly don’t. They may say they don’t, but look at what they actually do.”
He pointed to legislative changes that have made it procedurally harder to litigate against the police, layering on technicalities while publicly celebrating the Bill of Rights. The high court system, he said, is “broken,” with trial dates taking years to secure.
Prof. Jordi further flagged a recent Constitutional Court ruling that altered the calculation of interest in police litigation. Interest no longer accrues from the date of the incident but only from the date of judgment — which, given court backlogs, can be many years later, significantly eroding the real value of any award.
He also raised concerns about attacks on whistleblowers who come forward with information about police misconduct, describing it as another layer of intimidation that silences accountability.
A System in Need of Overhaul
The Nkabinde inquiry testimonies have reignited public debate over the culture of impunity within South Africa’s police service. Prof. Jordi’s analysis makes clear that without urgent reform of IPID’s capacity, a reversal of procedural barriers to civil litigation, and genuine political will from the executive, the cycle of police brutality — and the suffering of victims’ families — will persist.
For the families of the KwaZulu-Natal taxi owners killed in controversial operations two decades ago, justice remains, in Prof. Jordi’s words, “very difficult” to bring today.
