The South African Police Service Act, 1995 Act No.68 is one of the priority Bills under review by the Department of Civil Secretariat for Police Service during the current financial year. The review of the South African Police Service Act, 1995 is aimed at aligning the Act to all relevant
policies related to policing, among others, the National Development Plan, NDP, 2030, the White Paper of Policing 2016 and the White Paper of Safety and Security 2016.
Furthermore, the draft Bill is being aligned to the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996 as the current Act is based on some provisions of the interim Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1993. Therefore, the amendments provide for the repeal of section 218(1) and 219(1) thereof. The draft Bill also addresses the Constitutional Court judgement in the Hellen Suzman Foundation versus the President and Others and Glenister versus the President and Others in the cases CCT 07/14 and CCT 09/14 matter.
In this matter the Constitutional Court found 13 sections of the SA Police Service, SAPS, 1995 to be unconstitutional and ordered the deletion of the section with immediate effect. The third section relates to the constitutionality of the section 16 and Chapter 6(a) of the South African Police Service Act, 1995 which governs the establishment and the operation of the Directorate of Priority Crime Investigation known as DPCI or Hawks.
These sections need to be repealed in the Act in order to ensure legal certainty in respect of the interpretation. Thank you.