187 suspects killed by KZN police in 23/24 financial year

JOHANNESBURG - Police in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) killed 187 people in the commission of their work during the 2023 / 2024 financial year.

This is contained in the recently released annual report of the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) - which oversees the country's law enforcement officers.

The report covers the period between the first of April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

The tough-on-crime approach by KZN Police Commissioner, Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi has made news across the country.

During the period under review, there were 133 incidents of death as a result of police action, with 187 people killed.

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In both categories, KZN recorded the highest numbers out of the country's nine provinces.

IPID spokesperson Lizzy Suping said KZN, Gauteng, Eastern and Western Cape are the department's hotspot areas.

"It is concerning to us because we need to understand why in those hotspot areas there is so much violence so we are not only saying KZN is a problem child alone or we are only giving special attention to KZN, we are giving special attention to all provinces however the four hotspot provinces one have mentioned are given more attention because of the high intake of cases."

KZN also has the lowest rate of finalised cases, with IPID having completed its investigations to only 10% of the 4,244 reported cases in the province.

A figure that includes backlog and active cases.