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About 11 cases of wrongful arrests were registered with the South African Police Service (SAPS) every day on average in the last financial year.
4 135 incidents of wrongful arrest were registered with the police during the 2023/24 financial year, averaging about 11 cases a day.
This was revealed by Minister of Police Senzo Mchunu recently as a response to questions written by RISE Mzansi about wrongful arrests in the last financial year and claims the department received.
The minister also revealed that these cases carry claims worth more than R2 billion (R2 241 082 675). He, however, emphasised that “this is not the amount that would potentially be paid to claimants.”
According to RISE Mzansi’s National Assembly caucus whip, Makashule Gana, Mchunu offered no further explanation in his response.
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Reacting to Mchunu’s responses, Gana said he would be raising this matter with the minister and the national commissioner, General Fannie Masemole, when they appear before the portfolio committee on police.
He said he would raise the matter to get a breakdown of claims paid out, to find out if wrongful arrests are an issue with the police and why they occur, and to get a reference to specific cases.
“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,” Gana said in a statement on Tuesday.
“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.”
In a video posted on X (formerly Twitter), the member of parliament (MP) emphasised that South Africans want crime to end but not the wrong people being arrested.
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He added that he did not expect the wrongful arrest claims to be more than R2 billion in just a year.
“It’s a massive amount, and given the shortage of detectives, this over R2 billion could go a long way in adding a lot of detectives to ensure that there are no wrongful arrests,” he said.
Gana said that he wants to drive the reduction of wrongful arrest cases in the portfolio committee.
“We don’t want a situation like we have in the country, where there’re over 8 600 vacancies of detectives and then you go and spend over R2 billion in settling claims because you were arresting people wrongfully,” he said.
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