ISS and SAPU on SAPS and the latest crime stats

On Tuesday, the Portfolio Committee on Police heard input from the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) and the South African Policing Union (SAPU) on the South African Police Service’s budget and Annual Performance Plan for the year. Before hearing from their guests, Committee Researcher Ivan Kinnes did a brief presentation that showed the total police budget for 2014/15 is R76 billion compared to R72 billion in 2013/14 and R68 billion for 2012/13.

Kinnes proposed that the areas the Committee should focus on was seeing that SAPS is in line with the National Development Plan (NDP) proposals, the increasing reports of police brutality, as well as corruption and criminality within SAPS. A further concern is that SAPS under-spent its budget by 0.4% (R232 million); however, this is an improvement compared to the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID), which only spent 88% of its budget.

After explaining that his Union represents the labour movement operating within SAPS, SAPU President, Mpho Kwinika, questioned how SAPS could have under-spent on their budget “yet the police always refer to scarcity of resources”. He added that that budget could have gone to bolstering the human resources capacity within SAPS.

According to Gareth Newham from the ISS, some improvements have been made in SAPS. Arrests are on the rise - 1 092 689 arrests were made in 2002/3; while1 682 763 arrests were made in 2012/13. However, the number of cases being finalised i.e. going through courts, either seeing suspects sentenced or acquitted is declining, with 407 530 cases being finalised in 2002/3 and only 323 390 cases making it to court in 2012/13.

Newham said that a “strategic plan is needed” and that SAPS and the Police Ministry need to consult the Departments of Correctional Services and Justice to ensure “the courts, the NPA [National Prosecuting Authority] and the police work together” to address the lack of criminal convictions in South Africa.

Cases of police brutality also appear to be on the rise. “In 2012/13 a total of 4 097 cases of assault and torture was opened with the IPID - that’s 11 cases of police brutality reported per day,” Newham said. Of the 720 deaths reported to the IPID in 2011/12, there was evidence of criminality on the part of police in 162 cases, or one in five cases (22%). Furthermore according to an HSRC study, only 41% of South African’s have any level of trust in the police with other research showing that many people are actually scared of the police.

Newham went on to point out that over a five-year period ending in 2011/12, a total of 11 880 criminal cases opened with IPID with only 2 576 cases being referred to National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Of the cases referred to the NPA, only 129 or 5% of these cases ended in convictions.

Newham argued that this was not just a case of rooting out “bad apples” within SAPS, rather “senior police management have to take full responsibility and be held directly accountable for changing the culture, behaviour and performance of the police.” This sentiment is reiterated by the National Development Plan, which refers to a “serial crises of top management”.

Newham added that “action is not taken against certain senior officials despite evidence of wrong doing” and that people are sometimes “appointed into senior positions for reasons other than merit and integrity, creating the impression that political or personal loyalty is more important than hard work, honesty and qualifications to achieve senior positions in the SAPS”. Newham went on to say that police morale is a concern and that there has been an increase of police suicides, from 73 in 2008/09 to 115 in 2012/13. He also pointed out that despite media reports and public perceptions, the killing of police officers has gone down nationally, from 265 officers killed in 1994/95 to 76 in 2012/ 2013. However, Newham added that the Western Cape does not fit the trend and police killings are on the rise in the province, with three police officers killed two years ago, eight last year and “five already killed this year and we are only half way through the year”, Newham said.

The presentation then turned to crime statistics. Newham told the MPs that the ratios in the crime stats were incorrect because the recent rations were calculated on population estimates from the 2001 census rather than the 2011 census. For example - for murder, nationally, 0.6% should be 2.6%. Western Cape murder has increased by 0.5% according to SAPS crime stats and based on new census figures, it should be 10.1%. He added that there should be “an investigation into why an error in calculation took place”.

Kwinika added that the police need specialised units rather than ad hoc task teams and that pubic order policing only have 4 000 officials when they needed 10 000 to respond to the escalating protests in the country. He went on to argue that public order policing should also be decentralised. Responding to a question from ANC MP Joseph Maake, Kwinika said that it takes too long for requests to go through the national command and that public order policing needed to be linked to clusters and have provincial representation.

Later in the meeting, Committee Chair Francois Beukman offered condolences to SAPS and the family members of the five police officers who were murdered in the past week, referring to it as a “national tragedy”.