By Tara Meaney
The office of National Police Commissioner Bheki Cele on Thursday said it is unfair to paint all police officers with the same brush following the latest incident of police brutality.
Two weeks after Andries Tatane was shot and beaten to death by police during a service delivery protest in Ficksburg, a woman was shot and killed – apparently by a police officer – outside the Kempton Park Police Station on Tuesday night.
The details of the incident are still sketchy with some witnesses saying that Jeanette Odendaal was shot by the officer after bumping into the police patrol van. Others claim they heard shots before she crashed into the vehicle.
Cele's spokesperson Nonkululeko Mbatha said the investigations should be allowed to run their course.
"There would be those isolated incidents and they should be treated as such, but it cannot be all of a sudden all police are doing wrong. They are currently working, serving the community under tremendous pressure," she said.
However, the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation said the police are in denial about the extent of the problem
The association's David Bruce said, "The approach to dealing with the use of force hasn't really moved on in South Africa from the type of approach which was applied in the apartheid era."
The officer accused of shooting Odendaal is expected to appear in the Kempton Park Magistrate's Court on Friday.
(Edited by Lindiwe Mlandu)
CSVR is a multi-disciplinary institute that seeks to understand and prevent violence, heal its effects and build sustainable peace at the community, national and regional levels.
