SAPS Management distances itself from the IRR Broken Blue Line 2 report

Pretoria - The South Africa Police Service management wishes to make public the fact that the organisation distances itself from the South African Institute of Race Relations report entitled the "Broken Blue Line 2".

The National Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega, at her request, met with Mr Frans Cronje of the Institute of Race Relations and Mr Ian Cameron of Afriforum, which funded the report, on 23 January 2015. General Phiyega requested the meeting in order to gain insight into the contents of the report.

After making a presentation on the report and engaging on the research methodology and other matters, the two representatives were advised of the following:

The methodology used to conduct the research leading to the compilation of the report, in our opinion, is fundamentally flawed;

The South African Police Service (SAPS) was never engaged during the course of the research process, yet the report is about this organisation;

SAPS data bases were never used as a source of information and, as acknowledged by Mr Cronje during the meeting, case dockets were not studied and court reports/judgements were not sourced;

Mr Frans Cronje frequently acknowledged during the meeting that the report was based on assumptions and  inferences and that the research was never stress-tested;

The above is not apparent in the presentation made available to the media;

The report contains dangerous generalisations, apparently mostly based on media reports, interviews with journalists and some form of engagement with IPID;

The report should have been, but is not, based on statistical data, police case dockets or court judgements and therefore does not take into consideration that some accusations were subsequently proved to be false;

The South African Police Service is of the opinion that the content of the report, by way, inter alia, of the generalisations, is malicious;

The report, in its entirety, has not been submitted to the SAPS management;

The National Commissioner was never asked, nor did she grant, permission for her photograph to be used on the cover of the report.

"Therefore, as the accounting officer of the South African Police Service, I publicly disassociate the SAPS and myself from this report. We do not support it and feel that it was funded and released with malicious intent," said General Riah Phiyega.

"Furthermore, I feel aggrieved that my photograph is being used on a report which I consider to be malicious and that my request that it be removed was ignored," added General Phiyega.

Statement issued by Lieutenant General SM Makgale, Head: Corporate Communication, National Commissioner's Office, SAPS Head Office, January 28 2015

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