After many years of sustained activism by the Social Justice Coalition, The Treatment Action Campaign, Triangle Project and Ndifuna Ukwazi, the O'Regan-Pikoli Commission of Inquiry (CoI) into policing in Khayelitsha finally began its public hearings on 21 January 2014.The mandate of the O’Regan–Pikoli Commission is to investigate allegations of inefficiency at police stations in Khayelitsha, as well as the alleged breakdown in relations between the community and the police. Although the commission focuses on Khayelitsha, the organisations supporting the investigation believe it will have a profound, positive affect on poor and working-class townships and informal settlements throughout the country.
The Commission was established after the Women's Legal Centre launched a complaint on behalf of the Treatment Action Campaign, Equal Education, Free Gender, Triangle Project, and Ndifuna Ukwazi (Free Gender has since withdrawn from the action). The Commission was delayed due to court action by the National Minister of Police seeking to stop the CoI. On the 3rd of October 2013, the Constitutional Court dismissed Minister Mthethwa's application as "unwarranted" and having "no merit".
For regular updates on the CoI see http://safecommunities.sjc.org.za/.