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The South African Policing Union would like to call upon the Independent Police Investigative Directorate to act with extreme professionalism and integrity when dealing with any of the alleged police misconduct, brutality and illegality.

We are making this call after learning that the National Prosecutions Authority has declined to prosecute former acting national police commissioner Lt-Gen. Kgomotso Phahlane.

In legal circles it is well known that any investigation can lead to conviction or not. The huge embarrassment and humiliation of Gen. Phahlane because of extensive media coverage of his alleged misconduct only for the NPA to decline prosecution will never be wiped out of the public. We are not saying the IPID must apologize to him we are just cautioning them let this be a costly lesson in future.

We were even not certain of the role of the celebrated forensic investigator Paul O' Sullivan' s role in Gen. Phahlane's investigation. Hundreds of functionary members on the ground face daily humiliation because the IPID seem to want to get media headlines. We are not by any means claiming Gen. Phahlane's innocence, our primary concern is the way the investigation was conducted.

If institutions of the state are chasing newspaper headlines they are bound to commit costly mistakes that cause harm to others. We will watch closely Gen. Phahlane's next move as his rights were violated in this instance.

Issued by South African Policing Union