Pretoria - The police ministry on Friday denied the disappearance of a dossier on officers killed, which includes recommendations on training to improve safety.
"The ministry of police and the South African Police Service (SAPS) management are in possession of a report on police killings, whether on or off-duty, various training models and mechanisms to improve police safety," spokesperson Zweli Mnisi said.
He was reacting to a Pretoria News article on Friday, according to which the report on saving the lives of officers had vanished, while one was killed "every two days" in the country.
He disputed this figure as "bizarre". "In a department with over 200 000 police officers, indeed if a police officer is killed every two days, South Africa would not be having any police officers left.
Comment from the Pretoria News could not immediately be obtained.
According to the article, not only did police management and the ministry lose the report, compiled a decade ago, they did not have access to statistics on killings.
Mnisi criticised the fact that the article, which quotes a source who allegedly compiled the report, omitted part of his (Mnisi's) response acknowledging possession of the report, and created the impression that both the ministry and SAPS management had no statistics about police killings.
He said they would take the matter up with the South African National Editors' Forum.
According to the report the version that had vanished was a hard copy. An electronic copy, with recommendations and possible solutions to reduce police killings, was apparently never made and it was not known why.
Unisa school of criminology professor Anthony Minnaar was quoted saying the lack of vital equipment, such as bulletproof vests and inadequate training on responding to crimes led to the high number of officers killed.
They also had difficulty making split-second lifesaving decisions.
Mnisi further questioned the timing of the report, a day after Minister Nathi Mthethwa announced an upcoming summit about police killings.
