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Message: [QUOTE="Queen, post: 87654, member: 27"] Police-killing investigations in South Africa were systematically gutted by officers who stonewalled watchdog probes and shut down cases before they could breathe. Sharmilla Williams testifies at the Nkabinde Enquiry [LIST] [*]Former KwaZulu-Natal IPID investigator Sharmilla Williams described how police probes got sabotaged from the inside. [*]Civilian murders get treated as crimes, but police-involved deaths quickly become inquests. [*]That reclassification effectively kills proper investigations before they gain traction. [*]Advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi SC is leading the evidence at the hearings. [/LIST] Cato Manor unit's pattern of extrajudicial killings [LIST] [*]Williams said her team had enough proof to guarantee successful prosecutions in several cases. [*]Files got closed prematurely by the Director of Public Prosecutions' office despite strong evidence. [*]Durban's Cato Manor Organised Crime Unit became notorious for shooting suspects instead of arresting them. [*]Taxi violence and other crimes during the 2000s and early 2010s provided the backdrop. [/LIST] Watchdog left completely toothless [LIST] [*]Officers routinely refused interviews, delayed documents, and reclassified deaths strategically. [*]No enforcement mechanism existed to compel police cooperation with investigators. [*]Second-hand reports from duty officers replaced direct questioning at shooting scenes. [*]Williams called these deep structural failures, not isolated bad actors. [/LIST] What the enquiry could mean going forward [LIST] [*]Retired Justice Bess Nkabinde chairs the probe into Advocate Andrew Chauke's fitness for office. [*]President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized the enquiry to examine prosecutorial decision-making. [*]Williams is pushing for genuinely independent police oversight with real enforcement power. [*]More witnesses are expected to testify in the coming days. [/LIST] [/QUOTE]

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