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DPCI Judge Francis Legodi
The office of the Judge Complaints Unit for the Hawks says it has received over a hundred complaints from members of the public against the Directorate for Priority Crime (DPIC), between April 2024 and March 2025.
DPCI Judge Francis Legodi says most of the complaints range from investigations that drag for too long, delays in finalisation of the cases, and failure of Hawks officials to give feedback to victims of crime.
Legodi visited the SAPS Platekloof Forensic Laboratory in Cape Town as part of a provincial roadshow.
The Office of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) is responsible for investigation of complaints from and against members of the Hawks. It is entitled to receive complaints from members of the Hawks if they receive pressure from political interference.
Legodi has been at the helm since 2024. He says some of the complaints can be avoided.
“One of the reasons we find it necessary to engage with the Hawks is because of a number of cases which we receive that can easily be avoided. There are prescripts in terms of the working of the Hawks which obliges them to give a feedback to members of the public, the complainants or victims of crime to put it. The bulk of the complaints we received is in relation to a failure to give a feedback.”
The office makes recommendations if there have been findings against a member. The recommedations are sent to the head of the office to institute a disciplinary action against a particular member.
Legodi says they have also received a number of complaints from members of the Hawks and Acting National Head of the Hawks.
He says the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal have emerged as the three provinces that have recorded a high number of complaints from members of the public against the Hawks.
Legodi says some of the complaints they received included investigations that were allegedly poorly done.
“We also received complaints relating to delay in finalisation of those cases and we wanted to understand what could be the problem in terms of not finalising the matters as soon as possible. Some of these cases are quite complex. They need a lot of investigation, especially the corrupt acitvities and fraud and all those things.”
Legodi says they are ramping up their efforts to deal with backlogs and expedite the complaints lodged.
“When I started there were lots of backlogs. This is so because the office was without a retired judge for two years, and I was only appointed in May 2024. So there was a backlog. As a start, we tried as far as we could to try and dispose of those backlogs. We are left with very few matters which we can regard as backlogs. We are in the process of finalising the rest. I think by the end of May, we would’ve done away with the backlogs and probably with the new matters that we have received.”
The DPCI says considerations are being made to have offices in both cities and rural areas, that the public can easily assess to lay complaints.
