By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) has declassified a report implicating top police officials in the murder of detective Charl Kinnear.
The report, initially classified in 2022, names nine officers, including seven from the police and two from the Hawks.
IPID Executive Director Dikeledi Ntlatseng stated the report was kept secret to protect sensitive information. The declassification follows new developments and ongoing trials.
“The decision to classify the report in 2022, was guided by Section 33(2) of the IPID Act which states that information related to any investigation conducted by the Directorate, cannot be disclosed to any parties except those implicated or mentioned in the report, Ntlatseng said.”
The Department had to ensure that it protected itself from being exposed at the time. Ntlatseng said the IPID’s decision was compelled by developments that took place around the issues that promoted the classification of the report in 2022.
“The IPID investigation report also identified some of the officers who were implicated because of their actions or inactions. The inaction by police officers is constituted as misconduct by the SAPS Regulations,” She said.
“IPID has recommended criminal and disciplinary actions against the implicated officers, added Ntlatseng”.
She further revealed that it would engage with the NPA and the Director for Public Prosecutions in the Western Cape to review the 2022 decision.
In response, Nicolette, who is the widow to the late Kinnear stated: “It is disgusting that our family was not invited. Ipid showed disrespect and disregard by saying that the nation has the right to know before me and my children.
“The fact that the media briefing was scheduled without our knowledge is even more disgusting. Personally, I do not want to meet with Ipid,” she said.
Ntlatseng said Ipid would meet with the Kinnear family as part of the process of declassifying the report.
Kinnear was shot dead outside his Bishop Lavis home in Cape Town on 18 September 2020. At the time, it was widely known that Kinnear was under threat, yet he was not under state protection. This aspect — his lack of security — was central to the Ipid investigations and the resultant report.
At the time of his murder, Kinnear was investigating several organised crime cases and suspects that included fellow police officers.
Among those on trial in the Western Cape Division of the High Court in connection with Kinnear’s murder and issues surrounding it are organised crime accused Nazif Modack and Ashley Tabisher, who was a policeman attached to the Western Cape’s Anti-Gang Unit of which Kinnear was a member. They have pleaded not guilty.