The African National Congress demanded Monday that police officers be put on trial after one of the country's leading pathologists charged that police routinely torture and kill suspects.
Dr. Jonathan Gluckman has triggered a major controversy by claiming he has evidence that police killed scores of prisoners. He says he performed post-mortem examinations on some 200 people who died in police custody."Ninety percent of the people in these files, I am convinced, were killed by police," he said.
"I have constant evidence of police handling people in a vicious manner. My impression is they are totally out of control. They do what they like," he was quoted by Sunday newspapers as saying.
The ANC, the main black opposition group, demanded an independent investigation and swift action against police.
"It is imperative that a full, public independent investigation be conducted, and the police officers directly and indirectly involved, as well as their station commanders, be brought to justice," the ANC said in a statement.
The charges come at a time when the government and its security forces are under fire for alleged violations of human rights and failure to stop violence in black townships that has claimed thousands of lives.
Police Minister Hernus Kriel ordered an investigation into every death in police custody during the past two years.
"The government regards these allegations in a very serious light and will do everything possible to deal with the issue," Kriel said in a statement.
Gluckman said he went public after President F.W. de Klerk, Kriel and other top government leaders failed to respond to pleas for action to stop the alleged killings.