South Africans paying R1.67 billion for SAPS mistakes

The South African Police Service (SAPS) has spent R1.67 billion over the past four years on claims for wrongful arrests, detention, and injury in police custody.

Police Minister Senzo Mchunu revealed this in his response to a Parliamentary question from Rise Mzansi MP Makashule Gana.

Gana asked the minister what amount SAPS has paid for claims for wrongful arrests and/or injury in police custody in the past four years.

In his response, the minister revealed that R1.62 billion has been paid out over the past four years for wrongful arrest or detention claims. In addition, R48.12 million has been paid out for injury in police custody claims.

These amounts were paid out for 17,216 wrongful arrest claims and 346 assault claims between the 2020/21 to 2023/24 financial years.

The minister further revealed that, over this same period, SAPS received over 52,000 claims, of which only 18,078 were settled.

In September this year, Gana said in a press release that wrongful arrests erode the trust between the public and the police.

“It is therefore important to understand this phenomenon in full by putting the matter on the Portfolio Committee’s agenda and for it to intervene where necessary,” he said.

“Building a safe South Africa means that the SAPS are able to execute their duties without fear, favour or prejudice and where they do wrong, they are held accountable so that we all have confidence in the women and men who work to keep us safe.”

Earlier this year, the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) addressed the SAPS skills drain.

POPCRU President Thulani Ngwenya said the skills drain is now reaching critical levels as members retire or leave the service for better-paying positions in the private sector.

“This represents a serious threat to our national security, as our most skilled officers are leaving faster than we can train replacements,” he said.

“Law enforcement is already understaffed and underequipped, and this exodus from specialised divisions means that we cannot properly deal with serious crimes that fall beyond the scope of classic policing.”

He said that while private security firms are luring away highly trained personnel with lucrative offers, South Africa has been left vulnerable to security breaches. 

“Additionally, the migration of some of our most experienced and valuable officers to the private sector is not only weakening our law enforcement capabilities but also undermining the principle of state responsibility for protecting all citizens,” he said.

Ngwenya said active police numbers across SAPS have been unsatisfactory for years. 

For example, the total number of officers fell by 17,470 between 2012 and 2022, as revealed by the Annual Performance Plan for the 2023/2024 period. 

Meanwhile, the country’s population grew by more than eight million people during that time.

Despite the recent addition of new police recruits, Ngwenya said years of neglect mean there will be a gap in terms of suitably experienced personnel to replace those retiring. 

This will disproportionately impact specialised units, which have substantially higher appointment requirements.

This shortage of specialised skills can also be seen in South Africa’s declining number of detectives.

In August this year, Mchunu revealed that the country faces a severe shortage of detectives, meaning many cases remain uninvestigated and criminals walk free.

At the time, the total number of detectives employed was 22,413 – over 8,500 less than the 31,007 established positions available.

He further revealed that 527 detectives voluntarily left the SAPS between 1 October 2023 and 19 July 2024.

“This should worry us all as South Africans that we’ve got such a high vacancy rate of detectives because when there are no detectives, most of the cases that are reported to the police are not investigated,” Gana said.

“Even in cases where there are attempts to investigate, no proper investigation happens because the detectives that remain are overwhelmed and overworked by the caseload.” 

“That’s why you’ll find that many cases end up going cold or not being brought to court, and criminals continue to terrorize communities.”