Crime will continue to be a lucrative business in South Africa until the massive shortages of personnel and resources in the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) detective service are addressed, the Democratic Alliance said on Wednesday.
The party was responding to written answers to DA questions in Parliament provided by Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula, who revealed, among other things, that the national detection rate is only 27%.
Nqakula said the average case load per detective is about 100 dockets, but the case load differs between the 1 109 police stations across the country, as does the detection rate.
This is because of factors such as population size, crime trends and policing area size.
Nqakula said the number of positions for detectives was 22 329 by the end of October, but only 17 933 were actually filled and 4 396 posts were vacant.
Of the 17 933 detectives employed, only 11 085 met the requirements and criteria set for detectives, while 3 450 were undergoing training in the detective learning programme.
To address the vacancies, 30% of entry-level constables are yearly being allocated to the detective service.
Nqakula also said the shortage of vehicles for detectives at station level was 1 191, and of computers 1 515.
DA safety and security spokesperson Roy Jankielsohn said this lack of resources obviously affects the levels of service delivery within the police, and is probably why the average case load per detective is 100 case dockets — an inhumanly large work load.
”Investigating crime, apprehending criminals and presenting evidence to prosecutors is one of the most important tasks of the police.
”The SAPS cannot expect to achieve a substantial reduction in the crime rate if the detective services do not receive adequate personnel, vehicles and other necessary crime-fighting equipment to do so.
”While preventing crime is important, criminals must also know that they will not be able to get away with crimes committed. This can only happen if government gives the detective services the means to carry out their work effectively,” Jankielsohn said. — Sapa