Viewfinder is a new accountability journalism project, incubated in GroundUp but intending to become its own independent publication in time. Viewfinder does long term investigations into abuses of power which impact on the public interest – specifically as it relates to the need for equality and redress – in post-apartheid South African society.
Viewfinder's first exposé, launched in October 2019, shows how IPID, the police watchdog, has failed to properly investigate serious complaints against the police, including rape and assault. Yet IPID has manipulated statistics to give the impression that has investigated these allegations.
Check out the Viewfinder website.
IPID will prioritise investigating the most serious allegations against officers
News | 27 February 2020
By its own admission, the police watchdog does not have the resources to properly investigate all the cases in its workload
Analysis | 25 February 2020
Auditor-General warned police watchdog against manipulating statistics in 2017
News | 5 December 2019
Directorate misses Parliamentary deadline
Brief | 27 November 2019
IPID used a category called “special closure” to close hundreds of such cases
Feature | 18 November 2019
Annelize van Wyk regrets that Parliament didn’t sufficiently hold police watchdog to account
News | 24 October 2019
McBride’s critique of our exposé was surprising. He is on record agreeing with some of our article’s most important takeaways.
Right to reply | 18 October 2019
IPID accounts to Parliament
News | 10 October 2019
Watchdog to present annual report on Thursday following findings of statistical manipulation
News | 10 October 2019
The police watchdog completes a suspiciously large number of cases on certain dates
By Daneel Knoetze and Laura Grant
News | 8 October 2019
There were over 42,000 criminal complaints against the police from April 2012 to March 2019, and only 531 successful prosecutions
News | 7 October 2019
Public records, government data, whistleblowers and victim testimony have converged to show how crimes by police officers have not been investigated properly
Feature | 7 October 2019