INDEPENDENT POLICE INVESTIGATIVE DIRECTORATE AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT

INDEPENDENT POLICE INVESTIGATIVE DIRECTORATE AMENDMENT BILL HEADS TO PARLIAMENT

• 07 June 2023
• Parliament
• SA Legal Academy

An explanatory summary of the long-awaited Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) Amendment Bill has been gazetted in anticipation of its imminent introduction in Parliament.

According to a media statement on the Cabinet meeting at which the Bill was approved for tabling, its overarching objective is to ‘entrench’ the IPID’s institutional and operational independence, ‘giving effect to the McBride judgement’ (A Constitutional Court ruling handed down in September 2016).

To that end, among other things the media statement refers to proposals in the Bill providing for:

• a ‘more transparent and open process’ for appointing the IPID’s executive director, and
• ‘a detailed and thorough process for (the) integrity testing of IPID officials’.

Once operationalised, the Bill is also expected to go some way towards ensuring that the IPID ‘executes its mandate effectively and efficiently’.

In that regard, a National Assembly Police Committee statement issued in May 2023 urged IPID management to ‘ensure there is synergy between its envisaged expansion strategy and the … Bill’. At the time, this was noting the IPID’s ‘inability to spend its budget’ and the negative impact this has on ‘delivering its mandate’.

The Cabinet media statement includes a link to the draft Bill released in October 2022 for public comment. Because this version of the Bill is likely to have been revised to accommodate any relevant input received, it should be read with that in mind.

• explanatory summary
• Cabinet media statement
• committee media statement
• draft Bill
• Constitutional Court ruling

Published by SA Legal Academy Policy Watch

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