The Sebenza SAPS Detective Unit is under-resourced with vehicles and manpower.
According to the Democratic Alliance (DA) this is putting strain on officers. MP Mike Waters, Lethabong Constituency Head, said this was revealed in a reply to a question asked in parliament recently.
“According to the reply, there are supposed to be two detectives per vehicle and while there are 22 detectives, they only have eight vehicles between them of which one has been at the mechanical workshop since May 2014,” said MP Waters.
He also said the detectives each carry 63 cases on average or 1 386 cases for the entire precinct.
“What is of concern is that in another parliamentary reply, the minister stated the recommended average case load per investigating officer is between 40 and 45 case dockets. This means detectives carry more than the maximum and if all detectives were only given the maximum of 45 cases, they would need an additional nine detectives. This means the detectives are 33 per cent under-resourced,” said MP Waters.
MP Waters said he would write to the National Minister of Police, Mr Nkosinathi Nhleko, to find out when additional detectives and vehicles will be allocated to the police station.
Lieutenant Colonel Lungelo Dlamini, Gauteng SAPS Provincial Spokesperson, said resourcing of police stations is an internal matter.
“Timeously resource issues (human and physical) are being discussed by management for the purpose of effective service delivery. Stations are not functioning independently but form part of a cluster which ensures that resources are being shared should there be a problem,” said Lt Dlamini.
