“Disgusted.” That is how the widow of slain top cop Charl Kinnear reacted to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate’s (Ipid) decision to declassify the investigation report into the officer’s murder without communicating with the family first.
Ipid announced on Wednesday morning that they had declassified the investigation report into the death of detective Kinnear who was shot and killed at his Bishop Lavis home on September 18, 2020.
According to Ipid, the report had been classified as Top Secret in 2022 to protect sensitive information of witnesses as well as information of implicated officers who were yet to be charged at the time.
Seven police officers have been implicated in the report and two others are employees of the Directorate for Priority Crimes (DPCI/Hawks).
Ipid deputy provincial head and lead investigator on the Kinnear murder investigation, Mario September, confirmed that among the implicated individuals is a “former commander of the Anti-Gang Unit (AGU) with a Major General rank”, two Brigadiers stationed at Crime Intelligence and three Captains – one in the provincial commissioner office, crime intelligence and another in the operations room at AGU.
Speaking after a media briefing held at Parliament on Wednesday, widow Nicolette Kinnear, said she was “disgusted” by the way Ipid had treated the family.
“We were not informed of the declassification before the media briefing. I am completely disgusted by Ipid and their arrogance to say that the nation needed to know about this before the family.
That is blatant disrespect and to make such a huge decision and to disregard the family, is wrong. I did not lose a cup or a saucer, I lost my husband.
“I will not be engaging with them on this after today because I had tried on three occasions over the past two years to have the document declassified.
The classification of that document was done to protect the implicated officers but now the State has egg on their face because the very officers' names have been identified and named in an ongoing criminal trial in the Western Cape High Court,” said Kinnear.
Ipid executive director, Dikeledi Ntlatseng, confirmed the declassification of the report “was compelled by developments that have taken place around the very issues that prompted it to classify the report in 2022”.
Ntlatseng said they also made the decision to classify the report to protect against being exposed to unnecessary litigation.
The report was officially declassified on November 1.
“In 2021, Ipid assumed the investigation into the alleged actions or conduct of police officers on circumstances that led to the demise of Kinnear. In 2022 Ipid classified the investigation report because we had to protect sensitive information of witnesses and information of implicated officers at the time as they were not yet charged. The decision to classify was guided by section 33 of the Ipid Act... Currently the information of witnesses is now in the public domain.
Therefore, such information is no longer compromised,” said Ntlatseng.
According to Ntlatseng, they have made criminal referrals to the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) for a decision to prosecute, and disciplinary recommendations against the implicated officers.
September confirmed that disciplinary steps were being taken against the SAPS officers who are still in service and those who are no longer in service could still face criminal prosecution as the matter was taken to DPP for a decision.
NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila said they had not been informed about any information announced at the Ipid briefing.
“The DPP office is therefore not in a position to comment on its position until it has engaged with the Ipid,” said Ntabazalila.
Ipid head of legal services, Stephens Ramafoko, said a PAIA application would still have to be made for access to the report.
Cape Times