Shortage of police detectives a cause for concern: Rise Mzansi
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Rise Mzansi says a shortage of detectives in South Africa should be a cause of concern for all citizens.
This follows a written parliamentary reply by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, that the South African Police Service (SAPS) has a detective vacancy rate of just over 8500.
Mchunu says these figures exclude the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation commonly known as the Hawks.
The police minister says countrywide SAPS is operating with much less than the required 31,000 detectives.
The provinces with the highest vacancy rates are KwaZulu-Natal, and the Western and Eastern Cape, where each province has a vacancy rate of more than one thousand detectives. Gauteng has fewer vacancies.
Rise Mzansi says it’s concerned because some provinces with high vacancy rates are crime hot spots.
MP Makashule Gana says, “The response that the Minister gave that there are 8594 vacancies that remain open for detectives should be a big concern for all of us considering that we’ve got a high crime rate in the country and that many cases go unsolved; even the detectives that are in the employ of the South African Police Service they are overwhelmed by the number of cases that they have to attend to.”
Security expert, Johan Burger says these figures have improved compared to the 40% decline in the number of detectives presented previously.
However, Burger added that serious and violent crimes such as murder and aggravated robbery increased by almost 54% over the last decade.
“The addition of just over 4800 new detectives in the last year are almost all relatively young and inexperienced and it is unlikely that they will be making a big impact on the rising number of serious and violent crimes,” adds Dr Burger.
This should worry us All.@SAPoliceService has 8594 vacancies for Detectives. This was revealed in a response to my written question in Parliament by @Senzo_Mchunu_. Too many cases go unsolved because there is just not enough detectives.#RiseInParliament pic.twitter.com/HyiMISaEpk
— Makashule Gana – RISE Mzansi🇿🇦 (@Makashule) August 13, 2024