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The most recent developments in the ongoing war between the police and the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) raise fascinating legal questions about the independence of the police watchdog and the limits of the SAPS’s powers.
Who has the highest investigative authority in the land? The Constitution mandates IPID to investigate misconduct in the police, but who should investigate members of IPID when they breach the law? Can it be the police if they are themselves compromised? Or is IPID above the law, asks Alet Janse van Rensburg.
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Does Duduzane Zuma know what he's doing?
Whenever Duduzane Zuma appears on television, typically flanked by the Guptas, he triggers some worrying questions in one’s mind.
Is he a shrewd businessman or a tool with an expiry date? Does he understand the consequences of his business dealings with the Guptas?
He has the appearance of a cunning operator. Is he a wolf that has lost the sheep’s skin? Does he think of himself as an upright businessman? One can only wonder, writes Mpumelelo Mkhabela.
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Gender-based violence in SA: what’s missing and how to fix it
One of the problems is how violence against women is reported. A 2011 study by Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre found that court proceedings got a lot of media coverage if they met a simple, grisly requirement: they should be brutal and shocking.
Brutality may capture people’s attention, but a lot of discussion around gender based violence in South Africa is devoid of contextual analysis.
This comes with consequences. It normalises violence and narratives are produced in popular reporting that don’t help society identify the right interventions for dealing with violence, writes Prof. Amanda Gouws.
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