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Police Minister Senzo Mchunu. Picture: Gallo Images
Police Minister Senzo Mchunu has revealed that at least 1.9 million case dockets remain outstanding amid a severe detective shortage in South Africa.
Mchunu responded to questions from MPs at the Nieuwmeester Dome in Cape Town on Wednesday, addressing concerns over the backlog of criminal cases handled by the South African Police Service (Saps).
During the Q&A session, Mchunu acknowledged the severity of the situation, stating that the backlog had reached an unmanageable level.
“There are 1.9 million dockets that are outstanding, which we have decided to projectise because there’s no way you can treat that as a normal situation. It’s totally abnormal,” the minister said.
He explained that resolving the backlog would take at least two years, as the National Treasury lacked the necessary funds to assist.
“We looking elsewhere to get resources to deal with that backlog.”
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Detectives are overwhelmed, each handling an excessive number of cases, according to Mchunu.
However, efforts are underway to strengthen the Saps detective services.
The minister confirmed that 4 500 new recruits have joined the detective division.
“We’re hoping that this ongoing recruitment including bringing back some of the former detectives and preventing a number of them from leaving.
“Those who are asking to leave, we persuade them to remain in the service so that we can deal with the backlog on one hand, but deal with the current situation of too many dockets per detective.”
Mchunu pointed to several factors contributing to the detective crisis, including salary disparities between detectives and uniformed police officers.
“There is natural attrition, people are leaving the police service, and there are other root causes, but one of them that we have identified is the inequity in terms of payments or remuneration between detectives and uniform police, which we are seeking to address.”
He also noted the different working conditions detectives face.
“We’ve investigated all these matters, and at the summit that we’ll have in April, we are seeking to bring equity and to make conditions of detectives better so that we can keep them.”
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The minister described the backlog as “untenable” and emphasised that a detailed analysis had been conducted to categorise the cases based on age and progress.
To address the backlog crisis, Mchunu stressed the need for additional personnel on temporary contracts, but indicated that funds are needed to pay salaries and procurement more vehicles.
“We’re trying to find money from the private sector because at the moment we don’t have that money in our budget.”
Mchunu also stressed the urgent need to expand the police force to combat crime effectively.
“We acknowledge the need to increase numbers; we acknowledge the need to work with metro police and communities. That will increase eyes and ears and feet on the ground, and we’re consistently looking at that,” he said.
“Currently we have 153 000 police, where ideally we should be having close to 200 000.”
Over the past three financial years, Mchunu highlighted that 10 000 recruits have joined Saps, but the numbers still fall short.
“Although even that doesn’t match necessarily because we lose about 6 000 people per annum, and that means that you are actually recruiting about 4 000.”
The minister highlighted the importance of working alongside other law enforcement agencies to combat organised crime.
He stressed the need for Saps to collaborate with other departments such as Correctional Services, as some incarcerated criminals continue their unlawful activities from behind bars.
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