Chris Steyn (00:00.898)

There's growing public outrage over the treatment and subsequent death of Sky, an arson-detection dog in the custody of the police. Leading the charge is Ian Cameron, the Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police. Welcome Ian.

Ian (00:20.316)

Thank you, Chris.

Chris Steyn (00:21.806)

Please recap for our viewers the circumstances that led to the horrific injuries suffered by Sky and her subsequent demise.

Ian (00:32.082)

So Chris, on Monday morning, you and I spoke earlier this week, but I think it's so important to highlight the whole ordeal. On Monday morning, Sky was found, and I want to pause right there to say what happened before then and then I'll continue with that moment that she was found.

Sky was admitted to the Roodeplaat Veterinary Hospital of the South African Police Service in Pretoria in March of 2026. During that admission, she was evaluated and it was found that Sky had severe kennel stress and that she had a very serious anxiety problem specifically with regards to being kept in a kennel. There were issues that previously she kept on trying to escape if closed in too small a space to the point that when she was admitted her teeth were actually broken. Some had started tearing out of her gums as she was trying to bite through and get out of the kennels that she was kept in. For the rest of the time I'm not going to call those kennels, I'm gonna call them cages because the space in which it was held in that hospital is totally inhumane. There's no way that you can justify keeping an animal in there for long. And I'll justify why I said “for long” just now.

When Sky was then evaluated and I got the Veterinary Certificate… that Veterinary Certificate clearly warned them that she is a danger to herself, that if she does not get adequate care, she has a chance of really hurting herself…

This continued up until around the 7th of September when Sky was kept…

Ian (02:27.272)

…in this cage for about 18 hours per day. Sometimes over weekends, we're not sure whether she was even taken out.

She was actually making relatively good progress lately. I'm gonna share a clip with you as well that you're welcome to show on screen from just a few days ago when she was playing outside. And she looked pretty good. Yeah, teeth obviously were not in good shape, but she was receiving the better outside care, not the formal, the better outside care by members that literally just knew that she needed help. And they were trying their utmost to get her out of there. And they were literally asking, can we please take her until she's boarded? She’d already been boarded or recommended for boarding. And while that process was ongoing, that for no reason has to take so long, they would look after her. That didn't happen and Brigadier Kekana ignored that command, and Colonel Corbett at the hospital also ignored it.

Now, fast forward through that entire time period and the treatment to Monday morning, early September of 2026. They find Sky lying in a pool of blood…wiith an open fracture to her left leg, bone sticking through the skin, fracture to the right front leg as well, serious other cuts all over her face, et cetera, teeth badly hurt again, and extremely weak, blood everywhere.

Sky is then taken by one of the members to Onderstepoort, and it is made very clear by the command, by Colonel Corbett, that the brigadier, namely Brigadier Kekana, indicated that if anyone takes the dog to Onderstepoort for care the bill is on them they must pay for the medical treatment for that dog.

Ian (04:38.662)

The member said, well, you know, simply put, screw you. Well, that's what I would have said maybe in worse terms and said, we're caring for this dog. In fact, if you take that whole ordeal, that is the only member that actually upheld the Code of Conduct of the police and that he actually had the guts to tell them to bugger off and that he is going to look after this animal, which should be seen equal to any human member of the South African Police Service.

She was taken to Onderstepoort - and as in good old honest Onderstepoort fashion - they gave incredible care to her and they really tried their best to stabilise her but by yesterday morning which was the 9th of September she was she was so weak her organs started to fail they had to constantly sedate her and the tissue around the broken legs the broken bones the tissue the skin tissue was literally starting to die and it seemed like her muscles were also starting to break down as she was getting weaker and weaker.

So there was no real way of saving her. They would have needed to stabilise her, then they would have likely had to amputate her left leg with an open fracture and both of the fractures, both legs that were broken, had severe bacterial infections. So for all practical purposes they were rotten.

She was then put down, euthanised at Onderspoort and the police, we are told, are conducting an internal investigation, which is not a bad thing, it should happen.

But yeah, since then we've laid criminal charges against the relevant people in the police.

This morning I've written to the Independent Police Investigative Director to also follow the case and see if they can do conduct an investigation. The NSPCA has started their investigation and I've also received confirmation of receipt on the complaint that I sent to the South African Veterinary Council.

Chris Steyn (06:57.038)

Ian, what do you make of the police's response to you exposing what had happened to Sky, laying criminal charges?

Ian (07:16.54)

So firstly, I welcome the fact that the National Commissioner responded in the way that she did and that she's appointed from what I hear a very competent senior general to conduct the internal investigation. So I welcome that.

What bothered me though was, well, let me rather say that I just want to make it clear to them. And I said this in my statement that an internal investigation will not make the criminal investigation go away. It will also not make the SPCA investigation go away and if I had my say and if I could directly influence it, I would have not only sacked all of those people and laid the criminal charges as I would have expected from the police against them, I would also ensure that they never ever see a pension when they leave the police and that's apart from the criminal proceedings. So that's how drastic action should be taken.

What I find heartbreaking and this is critical is the fact that it is now 48 hours later after opening the cases. They have registered the case to the wrong station. We found out last night that the case had been registered to Pretoria Central instead of Kameeldrift. Unless they've got some weird and wonderful reason for that, it makes no sense whatsoever. It's just not the way to do it. It should be a Kameeldrift case. So that's wrong.

The second part is again 48 hours later, we still don't have an investigating officer.

The third part is that 48 hours later every single one of those people that are implicated are still there doing so-called animal care. So how is that okay? Now my question to them would be if Sky was a human that was tortured in the way that she was allowed to get hurt. Would they have taken 48 hours to just identify and allocate the docket to someone? The answer is simply no. There's no way.

Ian (09:28.658)

So the police's statement of yesterday when they said they mourned the death of one of their own is totally and utter bullshit. It's just not the truth. It's hypocritical and it just goes to show how some people in the police will literally bend over backwards to cover this up. Luckily. There are so many good cops that are forwarding. They literally flooding me with information about other animals.

So In the coming days I am going to emphasize, expose even more since as far back as 2019 about criminal investigations that were made to go quiet, disciplinary processes that were not followed and just ignored at Roodeplaat and how a lot of the animals that have died over the last few years could have still not only lived but lived prosperously.

So yeah that's where we are at the moment.

Chris Steyn (10:29.007)

So you're saying there's a huge cover up, there has been for seven years of ill treatment of animals at Roodeplaat?

Ian (10:38.908)

Remember there was a parvovirus outbreak about six years ago where I think it was just over 170 puppies that had died because of the relevant vaccines not in place, relevant treatment not in place.

As we speak, I know for a fact that there's medication that has been outstanding at Roodplaat at the animal hospital for more than a year. Medication that they literally don't have to give to the animals.

That place is registered as a veterinary hospital, but they're not open 24 seven. They close their doors at four. Remember, Sky was last seen at four o'clock on Sunday afternoon, so we are told. They only found her on Monday morning when someone opened up again.

Now that room with that horrible cage was where she was kept…has no natural light. It is a dark and dingy, dirty room. There's no excuse to keep an animal in there and why I said earlier it's not humane to keep an animal for such a prolonged time period. Obviously if it's clean and hygienic and it's a small space, but if an animal that is literally waiting to be operated on or…it's literally temporary…but the fact that she was kept in there for months on end for 18 hours or more a day is inexcusable. There's just no way that it's okay.

And the fact that SAPS then in their statement says that the investigation will tell us what it's nonsense. The minister is dead quiet. The only person that's had the decency to actually say something respectful is the National Commissioner. And I know for a fact that the Deputy National Commissioners are literally, literally broken because of this.

Not because I hear so, it's because I speak to the majority of people around them so often and I hear that they are destroyed. Now the question is, is the relevant action going to be taken?

Chris Steyn (12:46.848)

Ian, is there any explanation as to why a dog like that would not be allowed some space?

Ian (12:55.142)

They will probably say that it's a tendency to escape, but here's the thing.
Colonel Corbett was asked several times whether the dog could be taken home and that the dog can have a healthy environment to live in and retire in. There's no reason for that not to happen. It's common for SAPS members to adopt these animals and look after them. Obviously, a working dog would, in most cases, need slightly different care. You need to understand these animals. Now, why wouldn't you do that to people that are so dedicated to the cause and unfortunately neither Corbett nor Kekana put in the effort to see to it that that dog had some kind of a sustainable future.

The boarding recommendation was already done in March. Now you can do the maths but I think it's more or less around 160 days and it's still not resolved. That's not okay. A Brigadier, that rank and a full Colonel

If they have those ranks, they are not worth half of what they carry on their shoulders if they don't even have the decency to do this properly.

Chris Steyn (14:12.398)

Ian, I can tell that you are not going to let them get away with this.

Ian (14:16.514)

I am going to drive this thing for as long as it takes. I also challenge them if they've got a problem with me saying their names. I would love to fight this fight further and I will expose every single one of them.

There's an important reason for this. It's not just about Sky. Apart from us having a godly instruction to look after our animals and I want to quote it to you the verse 12-10 it says, righteous care for the needs of their animals, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel. It's an instruction that we should look after these animals and we should be good stewards and custodians of these incredible animals.

And the fact that they just not only neglected it, but almost maliciously disregarded the well-being is inexcusable. Now these are the same people that we expect to lead law enforcement enforcement bodies where we need to save people in a country where we've got gender-based violence pandemic where we've got one of the highest murder rates in the world, highest rape rates in the world and we can go through the list.

How do we expect them to turn the tide against crime when they can't even look after a dog? And this at an animal hospital, a so-called hospital. That hospital, if this is the way that they look after animals, that hospital is as good as a morgue for animals. It's almost a case of if you, as a dog handler, have to send your dog to Roodeplaatt, in many cases, you can say your goodbyes because you're not guaranteed that you would get your dog back. And I don't say this lightly. I say this because of the amount of cops that have called me over the last two days, pleading their cases about their dogs previously been sent there, came back worse, or didn't come back at all. I've got a case now that I'm going to start working on. I will share the information with you later about another dog that was admitted sorry for tick bite fever and they just didn't look after the dog. The dog was in critical condition. Eventually it had to be euthanised. There was just no urgency to treat the animal despite being diagnosed and everything.

Ian (16:41.932)

When you look at the kennels, those kennels are so small in the hospital that if the dogs are left there overnight, by the next day, if not cleaned immediately, the dog would likely spend a significant amount of time in his or her own faeces and urine. Now you can imagine for a dog that might already be wounded, have serious illness or some kind of a condition being confined to that space, it's inhumane. There's no way on this earth that you can justify that.

I don't have sympathy with these people. When you can't treat an animal well, there's no way that you can treat a human well. And the worst part is animals and children don't have ill intent. A small child and an animal in most cases can't even communicate with you properly. An animal can't talk back, it can't tell you how it's suffering.

So if you don't have the human decency to look after that animal, you don't deserve to have it. And I want to go as far as saying, the inquiries that we will launch coming from this will push at the current stage for that place to close and if the police can't prove that they can look after an animal they shouldn't have them at all.

Chris Steyn (17:55.306)

Indeed. Thank you. That was Ian Cameron, Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Police. Speaking to BizNews. I'm Chris Steyn

Ian (18:07.645)

Thanks Chris.

Ian Cameron: Another SAPS cover-up exposed!