Director of the African Centre for Security and Intelligence Praxis, Eldred de Klerk says police officials should be subjected to regular competency and integrity tests.
His statement follows Police Minister Bheki Cele’s revelation recently that more than 10 000 officers had faced disciplinary action after being charged with crimes such as murder, rape and assault since 2012.
The statistics also show that the Eastern Cape has the highest number of cases with a combined figure of 2 175 over the nine-year period.
De Klerk says some police officers can harm people that they are supposed to protect because they can get away with such misconduct.
In 2020, a young woman from Browns Farm on the Cape Flats, in the Western Cape, opened a case of assault against police.
Siyasanga Gijana says she lost her eye after she was hit in the face while inside her yard.
Gijana was told the injury was severe and she was transferred to Groote Schuur Hospital.
Doctors found there was no damage to her brain but she was told that her eye will have to be removed.
Last year, when the country was put into Lockdown Level 5 to curb the spread of COVID-19, social media videos were purporting to show SANDF allegedly forcing people to do physical exercises, reportedly as punishment for violating regulations.
File Video: Citizens decry law enforcement brutality during the lockdown:
