Probe into police-dog maulings

2003-01-15 13:34

Johannesburg - The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal has called for a special team to be set up to investigate recent incidents in Newcastle in which suspects allegedly were mauled by police dogs.

Provincial ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said on Tuesday his party had received complaints from at least two people who had been bitten by police dogs in the past week.

"The locals have reported to the ANC that last week two suspects gave horrifying accounts of how police dogs had ripped the flesh from their limbs after police officers from Newcastle dog unit allegedly unleashed dogs on them."

He said 13 people were allegedly attacked and bitten by police dogs in Newcastle in the past month.

"This barbaric act is unacceptable and warrants immediate intervention of the top echelon of the SAPS (SA Police Service)."

Superintendent Vish Naidoo of KwaZulu-Natal police said the police were aware of the allegations. He said "a number of people" were bitten in the execution of police duties, but that the incidents had been "hyped up" by the media.

Withdrawn from arrest duties

A special investigation into the incidents had been launched by deputy provincial commissioner Hamilton Ngidi. Naidoo could not say when the investigation would be completed.

He said, however, that no official complaints had been made against policemen who had allegedly set the dogs on suspects.

A national police spokesperson, senior superintendent Lazarus Tlometsana said police dogs had been withdrawn from crowd-control and arrest duties in 2001, after a controversial case involving six policemen who had set their dogs on illegal immigrants.

At the time, the men claimed it was standard practice to train police dogs by setting them on people. The so-called training session was also video-taped.

Tlometsana said police dogs were used only in an investigative capacity.

"We use sniffer dogs to find drugs and during bomb scares and we also use dogs to link a person with a piece of evidence," he said.

"But dogs may not be used to arrest anyone."

- SAPA