SAPS Crime Statistics Quarter 3 2021/22; with Minister & Deputy present

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Police

18 February 2022
Chairperson: Ms T Joemat-Pettersson (ANC)
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Meeting Summary

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The Department of Police briefed the Committee in a virtual meeting on the crime statistics compiled by the South African Police Service (SAPS) for the period from October to December 2021. The Committee was told that these statistics would be made available quarterly in future rather than annually as in the past. This was welcomed by the Committee, as it would enable it to focus on the current crime realities in the country.

The Department's presentation spelt out the increases and decreases in the South African crime statistics according to the different categories of crime, their incidence in the various provinces, and the causative factors influencing some of these crimes. Although most of the recorded crime statistics numbers had decreased, murder had shown an alarming 8.9% increase. Car-jacking was also leading under the sub-categories of aggravated robbery, with a 13.8% increase in the three-month period.

The leading factors in some of the murders were attributed to arguments, misunderstandings and provocation, while others were attributed to vigilantism, robberies and retaliation. Public places such as open field and parks were the most common places of occurrence, followed closely by the residences of either the victims or the perpetrators. The report also touched on the ongoing killing of police officers, which had increased since the last report, and gave details of murders in the farming community.

Committee Members commented that although the statistics showed a decline in most crime categories, the figures were still too high. The recorded number of 11 315 rape cases over a period of three months indicated a decrease, but in fact, this meant that there were 123 rape cases daily. On average 74.5 people were murdered every day in the third quarter of 2021/22, while five years ago the figure was 61.8 people per day. This indicated that the murder rate had increased by 20.5% in the last five years, and this was appalling.

The SAPS was asked if it would in the future be able to provide a report on all the crimes committed by police officers, and any complaints lodged against police officers for corruption, looting and collusion with the public. What was it doing to stem the flow of stolen vehicles across the country's borders? What action was being taken against scrap metal dealers who provided a market for those who stole copper cables and rail infrastructure? Concern was expressed over firearms stolen from the SAPS that were used during most hijackings, and what the police were doing about illegal firearms in the country. A Member also referred to Operation Dudula, where community activists in Gauteng were seeking the removal of undocumented foreigners, and asked what the SAPS were doing about such operations.

The Minister and the National Commissioner responded to the comments and suggestions of the Committee and gave an assurance that the Department was working to ensure that all the issues raised were being dealt with.

Meeting report

The Chairperson opened the meeting by acknowledging the presence of Mr Bheki Cele, Minister of Police, and the management of the South African Police Service (SAPS), and immediately handed over to the Minister and his delegation to proceed with the presentation.

SAPS report on crime statistics

Maj Gen Norman Sekhukhune, Head of Crime Research, SAPS, began by giving an overview of the crime recorded in South Africa in the period under review. There had been a 562 increase in the number of people murdered, compared with the last quarter. Sexual offences had decreased by 9%, while attempted murders had increased by 193 since the last quarter. Assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm (GBH) decreased by 3 611. There had been a drop of 794 in the number of common assaults. Common robbery had decreased by 1 298, and robbery with aggravating circumstances had decreased by 456 since the last quarter.

The total number of sexual offences in the last quarter had decreased by 1 407. Rape had decreased by 903, sexual assault by 321 cases, attempted sexual offences by 101, and contact sexual offences by 82.

Maj Gen Sekhukhune highlighted some of the sub-categories of aggravated robbery. Carjacking cases had increased by 661 in the last quarter. Robbery at residential premises had decreased by 21, while robberies at non-residential premises had increased by 86. Robbery of cash in transit had decreased by five, but bank robberies had increased by six. Truck hijacking had increased by 12 in the last quarter.

He referred to select contact crimes per capita, using the series from 2017/2018, as Statistics South Africa was conducting its census in the current year, and would provide the Department with new data only thereafter. Murder for the current quarter was 11.4 per 100 000, rape was 18.8 per 100 000, attempted murder was 9.4 per 100 000, assault with the intent to inflict grievous bodily harm was 77.1 per 100 000, common assault was 78.0 per 100 000, and common robbery stood at 17.4 per 100 000.

He also touched on the murder ratios per province, taking into consideration the total number of murders committed within each province juxtaposed with the total population of each province. The Eastern Cape province had recorded the highest murder rate per capita, with 18.7 per 100 000 in the current quarter. The Western Cape recorded the second-highest rate per capita, with 15.1, followed by KwaZulu–Natal (KZN) with 14.2, Gauteng at 10.3, the Free State with 8.3, the Northern Cape with 8.0, the North West at 7.2 per capita, and Mpumalanga with 6.6 per 100 000. He said that the use of mid-year population estimates assisted the Department to establish accurate murder statistics per province, as some provinces were more populated than others.

The total number of contact-related crimes had increased by 632. There was a decrease in the total amount of property-related crimes, including burglary at non-residential premises, at 1 142. Burglary at residential premises had decreased by 3 142, and the theft of motor vehicles and motorcycles by 323. The total number of other serious crimes had risen by 3 889. The total number of crimes detected because of police action had decreased by 5 192.

There had been a decrease across all the provinces in the 17 community-reported serious crimes category over a three-month period, except for Limpopo, which had recorded an increase of 0.2%. The 17 community-reported crimes' top 30 police stations were led by Cape Town Central, at 499, followed by Honeydew, Johannesburg (JHB) Central, Durban Central and Park Road, making up the top five. The statistics had also been sorted according to the total number of increases reported in each station. Cape Town Central had the highest increase of 499, followed by Phoenix with 456 and Kagiso with 242.

There was a decrease in contact crimes across all provinces in the period of three months, except for Limpopo, which had an increase of 185. The top 30 stations were led by JHB Central; Alexandra; Temba in Gauteng; Plessislaer in KZN; and Mfuleni in the Western Cape. The count difference was also sorted according to the stations which recorded the highest increase in the number of contact crime. Verulam in KZN recorded 150 cases more, followed by Harare with 145, Kwadukuza with 139, Phoenix with 129, and Cape Town Central with 120 more cases.

Maj Gen Sekhukhune said there had been an increase in murder rates across most provinces over the last quarter. The Free State and the Western Cape were the only two provinces that had recorded a decrease in the murder statistics over the last quarter. The Department had drawn from a sample of 80% of the murder rates reported to the police in the current quarter, to better understand the factors causing the increase in murder rates. Arguments and misunderstandings had been recorded as the highest causative factor, followed by vigilantism, robberies, retaliation, taxi-related issues, and rape.

Referring to the statistics related to selected contact crimes against women and children in the last quarter, he said there had been an increase in the number of murders of women from October to December 2021. Attempted murder had increased by 83 cases, but assault with intent to commit GBH had decreased. The murder of children under the age of 18 had fallen by 5.6%, while attempted murder had increased by 30%. The causative factors, according to each province, indicated that most arguments and misunderstandings were recorded in KZN, with 383 cases, followed by the Western Cape (164) and the Eastern Cape (131). Robberies as a causative factor were led by KZN (132). Gang-related violence as a causative factor was most prevalent in the Western Cape (107 cases). The most common place where murders were committee was public places -- for example, open fields, recreational centres, the workplace etc, with 2 599 murders in the last quarter. The second most common place was the residence of the perpetrator/victim, or a residence known by the victim/perpetrator, with 1 510 murders. Liquor outlets were involved in 252 murders.

Between October and December, there were 27 recorded murders of members of the police force, 20 of whom were killed while off duty, and seven were killed while on duty. The highest increase of police murders was recorded in KZN.

There were 11 victims killed in farm murder incidents compared to the previous quarter, during which 22 murders were recorded at. Three of those murders were instances where farm dwellers were attacked and killed by farmers of farm managers.

Maj Gen Sekhukhune outlined the statistics where liquor and drug-related offences were attributed to contact crime. There were 280 recorded murders where the perpetrators/victims were confirmed to be using either drugs or alcohol. In 1 305 rape cases, it was indicated that alcohol was used, and in 107 cases it was confirmed that drugs were used. There were 5 671 cases of assault GBH where drugs and alcohol were used. At liquor outlets (taverns/ shebeens/night clubs etc.), 3 400 cases of assault GBH were recorded, 90 cases of rape, 209 attempted murder cases and 252 murder cases.

Over the three-month period, three provinces had recorded decreases in attempted murder cases. Gauteng had an 8.9% decrease, North-West 6.9%, and the Western Cape 24.5%.

There was an overall decrease in rape cases across all provinces for the three-month period. In October there was a decrease of 256, in November a decrease of 268, and in December a decrease of 379. Lusikisiki had the highest number of reported rape cases in terms of the stations where most rapes had occurred, followed by Umlazi, Inanda, Delft and Harare.

The Eastern Cape had recorded the highest number of murders attributed to domestic violence, with 51 cases. The total for the country indicated that 117 females and 115 males were killed due to domestic violence. The Western Cape had recorded the highest number of rape cases, with 155 cases. There were 632 females and 42 males raped who were known to have domestic relations with the perpetrators.

He underlined some of the sub-categories of robbery with aggravating circumstances. There were overall increases across October, November, and December in cases related to carjacking, except for the Free State which had a decrease of 5%, North West with a decrease of 2.8%, and the Western Cape, with a decrease of 2.3%. The top three stations where car-jackings were reported were Harare, Nyanga and Philippi East, all in the Western Cape. There was a decrease in robberies in residential areas, while robberies at non-residential premises had increased over the three-month period.

There was a recorded decrease of robbery of cash in transit during October, an increase in November, and a decrease again in December. Gauteng province recorded a decrease of nine cases, and Mpumalanga decreased by one case.

All the provinces except for the Free State and the Western Cape recorded increases in kidnappings over the three-month period. The highest number was recorded at JHB Central, with 22 kidnappings. The highest causative factor attributed to kidnapping was highjacking-related, and the Gauteng province recorded the highest number at 523.

Property-related crime had decreased over the three-month period.

Stock theft had decreased in the month of October, but there was a recorded increase during November. Limpopo had recorded the highest increase of 16.7%, while North-West had recorded an increase of 8.7%.

Lastly, he gave an overview of the crime statistics of the different provinces, indicating that there had been an 8.3% increase in murders in the Eastern Cape. Attempted murders had increased by 5.3%, and common assault by 6.1%. The only contact crime that had increased in the Free State was common assault.

Discussion

The Chairperson highlighted that the per capita ratios for rape and assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm had been at their lowest levels for the past five financial years. However, the per capita ratios for murder and attempted murder were at their highest in the third quarter of 2021/22. She raised a concern that although sexual offences had decreased by 9.0% in the third quarter, from October to December, 14 188 sexual offences cases were recorded, and this was lower than the previous quarter. These numbers did not say much when there had been a recorded number of 11 315 rape cases over a period of three months. There needed to be an explanation for these numbers, which were still excessively high. It could not just be said that the number of rape cases had decreased, when in fact there were 123 rape cases daily.

Mr M Shaik-Emam (NFP) asked if the SAPS would in the future be able to provide a report on all the crimes committed by police officers, and any complaints lodged against police officers for corruption, looting and collusion with the public. He emphasised the importance of these statistics being made available, as in his own personal capacity he received calls relating to corrupt police officials. He touched on the issue of car-jackings, indicating that the main cause for the high numbers was due to the availability of a market for these stolen cars. From his own research around car-jackings in South Africa, it was the cheaper cars that were being stolen because of the market with motor scrap dealers. The more expensive cars were leaving the country into the neighbouring countries. He highlighted that there was free movement into these neighbouring countries, with no measures in place to investigate these cases to stop the high-jackings and the killing of innocent people. He asked for clarity on how the Minister and the Department planned on dealing with this issue.

Mr O Terblanche (DA) expressed his dissatisfaction with the numbers, pointing out that the murder rate had increased yearly by 8.9% and 11.3% from the 2021/22 second quarter to the third quarter. On average 74.5 people were murdered every day in the third quarter of 2021/22, while five years ago this was 61.8 people per day. This indicated that the murder rate had increased by 20.5% in the last five years, and this was appalling. Attempted murder increased by 3.5% yearly, and by 9.6% in the current quarter. With the murder and attempted murder rate increasing yearly, women and children remained incredibly vulnerable.

He said South Africa became more unsafe daily, but one continued to see fewer police officers on the ground. He raised concern at the possible cutting of the police budget by another R11 billion over the next three financial years, saying he was not happy with the current situation.

 Rev K Meshoe (ACDP) said he appreciated the release of the statistics, although they were not encouraging. The number of murders of women and children was too high, and that was very unacceptable. He asked whether the police were doing any surveys to find out the causative factors to address them as a means of reducing the number of murders of women and children. If nothing was being done, why was that so?

Referring to the number of rapes and murders occurring in KZN, he said that KZN seemed to be the leading province, and it was concerning that one province repeatedly had such a high number of incidences of murder. He asked if this was due to the failure of the police to maintain law and order in KZN, or perhaps due to the breaking down of families. If this was the case, what could be causing more families to break down in KZN than in any other province?

Dr P Groenewald (FF+) said that from the presentation, it appeared that crime was decreasing, and everything looked good except for murder and attempted murder. When looking at the statistics for murder, attempted murder, car-jacking, robbery at residential premises and the murder of women and children, it was only robbery at residential premises that decreased. This was one of the most feared crimes in South Africa, but if it had stabilised, the Freedom Front Plus welcomed that. The high increase in car-jackings was quite alarming, taking into consideration that not everyone was back at work, so it was an area that needed serious analysis. He said that the murder rate was still at about 36 per 100 000 of the national population, compared to the world average of seven per 100 000 of the population.

He said slide 70 indicated the overall causative factors over the three-month period and asked why there could not be a separate figure for each of these causative factors because he was worried about the number of cases related to mob justice. Mob justice in a country was an indication that the community had lost its trust in the justice system to protect them. As it stood, it appeared that mob justice did not seem to be a problem.

There had been an increase in the murder and attempted murder of women, and he asked how many of these women had previously reported domestic violence cases to the police. If those statistics were not available, there needed to be an investigation, as there were still too many cases where women lay complaints of domestic violence, assault or attempted murder, and the police turn them back without assisting.

Ms Z Majozi (IFP) said that although the statistics on common assault were decreasing, she was not sure why there was no table indicating the provincial statistics on common assault, as this was usually the starting point of most crimes. She gave an example of a case where a man would assault a woman, even if they were not acquainted in any way. The man would feel that he had power over another individual to the extent that he was comfortable with assaulting them, and this translated into the home environment, resulting in domestic violence. 232 was a high number of domestic violence cases.

She said the kidnapping occurring in the Gauteng province was very alarming. She also raised concern over the hijackings happening in the country and said if this could be addressed it would make a difference. She was happy with the decrease in drug-related crime overall, as it was an indication that progress was being made. She said that during community meetings, people were complaining that police officers were the ones delivering drugs to the drug lords in townships. She denounced corrupt police officials that were supporting drug lords in these communities. As a Committee and a Department, there needed to be a collective effort to fight this.

Mr H Shembeni (EFF) raised concern over stolen firearms from the SAPS that were used during most hijackings and said that this was not mentioned in the report on crime. He asked what the SAPS was doing about illegal firearms in South Africa. There was no indication in the report on the firearms that were stolen from police stations and asked for feedback on the investigations of these stolen weapons. He referred to Operation Dudula, where community activists were seeking the removal of undocumented foreigners, and asked what the SAPS were doing concerning such operations.

He asked for a thorough report on the increase of crime statistics in each category at police stations, according to each province. This would assist the Committee to have a clear insight into the performance of station commanders and police officials, and what changes needed to be made.

Rev Meshoe said when stolen copper cables and metal railway tracks were stolen, and cheap cars were scrapped, they all ended up in a metal scrapyard. He asked if the police raided these scrapyards, as it was a known fact that the materials being stolen ended up there. He also touched on the negligence of police officers when it came to the lack of protection of their firearms. He asked if there were any penalties for police officers who lost their firearms either due to being drunk or just being careless. There were too many illegal firearms in the country.

Mr A Seabi (ANC) addressed the statistics reflecting an increase in the killing of police officials. He asked whether these statistics included metro police, or if they referred only to SAPS members. The statistics showed that police officers were being killed on and off duty, especially off duty. He asked whether SAPS had tried to establish reasons behind these killings, especially those that were off duty. Was it because they were doing their job and when they left work they were considered vulnerable targets, or perhaps because they were also involved in criminal activities? Some police officers were accused of selling drugs. Quite a few police officers were killing their partners, and he asked what SAPS was doing to establish the reason for these killings. He asked if there were any employee wellness programmes in place to assist police officers who were under stress.

The Chairperson reiterated the sentiments shared by Mr Seabi, referring to a recent incident of a police officer who had used his service weapon to kill his partner. She said that the overall wellness of police officers needed to be taken seriously.

Ms L Moss (ANC) thanked the members of the SAPS for the selfless work that they did to continue to protect South African communities with dignity. The Committee had gone on an oversight visit to Tshwane in the Gauteng province, and the Acting Commissioner had presented an excellent report. She said there was a downturn in the crime statistics that had been presented. Great programmes were being implemented in Gauteng, with co-operation between the local authorities and the government, but she was not sure what was happening as the crime numbers were increasing. She asked why crimes numbers were increasing in Gauteng.

She expressed concern with the fact that every time there was a report on crime in the Western Cape, statistics for Cape Town -- central Cape Town, Mitchells Plain, Nyanga, Gugulethu and Langa -- were always mentioned. She said that there were small rural towns and farming communities that needed to be considered. Were these towns not part of the Western Cape? She asserted that it was from these major towns that crimes such as kidnappings, murders, etc, spread into the small rural towns.

She raised concern about the incidence of poaching and drug trafficking, saying that they were both closely related. She asked if there was a cooperation between Department of Forestry, Fisheries and Environment and the police department, and if there was cooperation the Committee should be made aware of this information. If the issue of poaching was not addressed, future generations would miss out on the opportunity to see certain species.

Response from SAPS

Minister Cele suggested that the Committee and the Department would need to sit down together and work, rather than having the report relayed to them. This would assist the Committee to have a better understanding of the crime statistics and to make a contribution of its considerations concerning the report. The aim was not to just have information passed around, but rather to find a way to reduce crime on behalf of South Africans.

Responding to the concerns raised by Dr Groenewald over separate categories of murder per province, he said it should not be a difficult task to explain further how the murders occurred and other causative factors. The information on the previous reports made to police by women before they were killed could be found. He said society would have to play a much bigger role when it came to cases of murder. There was a high number of murders occurring in places where people were considered to be safe, and a high number of instances where the perpetrators of rape were known by the victim. One major problem that the police faced was the role played by friends and family in terms of pressurising victims to retract charges that they had made against their perpetrators. He highlighted that these were cases that the police dealt with daily, and it was a major concern for them. There was no support for victims from families and friends.

Addressing Rev Meshoe’s question about scrapyards, he said the Department would have to work with various other departments, such as the Department of Trade and Industry. A few weeks ago there had been a big operation, where the SAPS had taken action at a few of these scrapyards. There were hopes that the laws would change, where the issue would not be about scrapyards in isolation, but receiving stolen metal would be considered a serious economic crime and they would be able to make arrests. Pawnshops were unfortunately a market for stolen goods, increasing the number of house break-ins.

He said illegal firearms were as much a concern for the Department as it was for the Committee. There were a lot of operations dealing with the issue of illegal firearms, which confirmed that there were indeed firearms missing from police officials. He said 158 firearms in Gauteng had been stolen by police officers and sold, and three of these officers had been arrested, with one of them committing suicide. He said that all illegal firearms came from shops as legal firearms and were stolen from their owners. The Department needed to work with the communities and firearm owners. In incidents where school children were found in possession of their father’s firearms, laws would need to be strengthened. Currently, the Firearms Act was being amended.

Regarding the issue of police being drunk, the Minister stated that “indeed every family has a black sheep”. He made an example of the priests who were on trial for grooming children for sex slavery. However, in the relatively few incidences that occurred, the police officer involved was cut off from “the family” and the firearm was removed from them. The welfare of the police who were working under stress was being taken into consideration. He pointed out that these police officers were working on very strenuous cases and often found themselves in these compromising positions.

The Minister handed over to the National Commissioner to answer further questions further.

Rev Meshoe reiterated his question relating to a survey on the causative factors behind the murder of women and children.

General Khehla Sitole, National Police Commissioner, confirmed that there was an official root cause analysis that cuts across several strategic interventions. These included the gender-based violence (GBV) action plan. The root cause report was also linked to the modus operandi analysis of the same subject. This could be made available upon request. He requested that the additional reports should be availed in the form of addendums.

He said the quarter under review was a high-density stabilisation quarter which was characterised by high saturation. There had been some explicit directives, some of which were from the office of the Minister, such as no one being granted leave. The following quarters would be following a normalised programme, but the standard would have to be maintained. He addressed the issue raised about resources that may also come into play and said that the 7 000 recruits would assist the Department in maintaining this standard.

The report on crimes committed by police officers would be made available as part of the previously mentioned addendums.

The SAPS was responding to the car-jackings issue nationwide. The biggest issue the Department faced was that 70% of the market was outside South Africa, spread across several parts of the sub-continent. Car-jacking remained a priority for transnational crimes, so it was also linked up with Interpol. Some concerns raised regarding car-jacking which needed more attention required the synchronisation of the legal system with those of the different countries when the Department was dealing with this issue. Crimes such as drugs, kidnapping and car-jacking were all listed as part of the transnational crime priorities and were given a collective response by countries.

General Sitole also addressed the issue of corrupt police officers and said that there was an ongoing campaign to clean up the contamination within the police department.

He also touched on the Employee Health and Wellness (EHW) programme, highlighting that the Department was indeed responding to all the challenges faced by the members of the SAPS force.

Police killing statistics were exclusive of the metro police forces.

Lt Gen Fannie Masemola, Deputy National Commissioner: Policing, referred to the stolen vehicles in the country that were shipped to neighbouring countries and said there were agreements with countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) that came into effect when a vehicle or any other property was stolen through their country. Often the agreement was not sustainable, and there was a lot of back and forth.

Responding to Ms Majozi, he said that in the current quarter, Gauteng had the highest number of common assaults, followed by the Western Cape and KZN.

Lt Gen Francinah Vuma, Deputy National Commissioner: Support Services, indicated that SAPS did have an EHW, which was comprised of psychologists, social workers and pastors, who were meant to support the members of the SAPS during periods of need. There were standing guidelines that allowed the officers a debrief before and after their duties. There was often a stigma around the officers attending these EHW sessions from their peers, which then made it difficult for the officers to optimally use the services. The programme was also available to extended families because there was an understanding that during the call of duty officers were exposed to different crime scenes and they react to the traumas experienced. The Department had also partnered with medical aid schemes to ensure that members were given more than six sessions monthly, and they may use a psychologist of their choice. She stressed that the services were still not optimally utilised. The organisation had come up with a more proactive strategy, which was wellness centres that would attract members, and they would be able to access them more positively. They offered facilities such as gym and exercise equipment, and as time went by, perhaps even yoga to encourage group debriefings. With the realisations that members were killing their loved ones and even themselves, there really was a need for serious strategies to assist members of the SAPS.

Lt Gen Liziwe Ntshinga, Deputy National Commissioner: Crime Detection, said that the Department worked very hard to prioritise cases around rape and GBV, so the decrease in numbers was not just by chance. SAPS was implementing robust campaigns to educate the larger community, even in places such as universities and schools. The Department was working closely with the courts to prioritise GBV cases on the court roll, making sure that DNA results were made available on the next court date. When the cases were postponed to March, the Department was already on to those cases. This had yielded positive results, as there had been sentences in GBV cases, with quite a lot of life sentences being handed down. There were continuous projects that were running at the moment that was related to cleaning out corrupt police officials.

Lt Gen (Adv/Dr) Godfrey Lebeya, National Head Head: Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks), addressed the matter of investigations into police killings. He said that Hawks investigated the killing of both the SAPS Metro police members.

There was collaboration with other law enforcement entities which were not necessarily police, in terms of addressing the poaching of endangered species in the form of abalone, rhino poaching and the like.

Minister Cele said that the Constitution of South Africa allowed people to march unarmed and not interfere with the rights of other citizens. Operation Dudula in Gauteng had created a high level of activity in the province. He commended the work being done by police officers and the special public order police (POP) under those circumstances. A few of these operations had been stopped. Previously, planning would take place if there was an organised march happening, as the police would be aware and would be able to plan accordingly. A Concourt decision had overturned this, saying it was not necessary, so at any given time anybody had the right to march without giving advance notice. The ruling indicated that the police could stop them only when they were causing violence. This had made the work of the police very difficult.

Follow-up discussion

Mr Shaik-Emam agreed with the Minister that given the socio-economic disparities of South Africans, the job of police officers remained extremely difficult. He wanted to hear exactly how many vehicles the Department had managed to trace to these neighbouring countries, established how these vehicles got into these countries, what paperwork had been given to allow this to occur, which licensing authority had allowed this to happen, and if there was a certain pattern of police officers who were always on duty when these vehicles got to the border. There needed to be some sort of mechanism to trace these vehicles back into the country. He asked if SAPS could provide statistics of incidents of police officers involved in GBV, criminal acts and corruption, as there was a lot of this going on within the police force. Could there be a direct line to the National Commissioner for people on the ground to send in their complaints about police officers who were found on the wrong side of the law?

Mr Terblanche asked what the role of the police was in all the issues that had been raised during the discussions. It appeared that the police were mere spectators, and there had not been any new suggestions raised. Crime was rising in South Africa, and the police had run out of ideas. When were they going to create positive changes? What were the police going to change? The police needed to look at changing their policing style.

SAPS response

Minister Cele said that it could not be correct that there was nothing new being done by the police. The Department learnt from these crime statistics. One of the GBV issues was the reception of the victims at the police stations, where police officers previously did not understand the pain of the victim. 900 members had been trained to be the first line of reception for victims, and this had been learnt from the crime statistics and the community. Some of the issues were objectives the police could not do anything about. Environmental factors often did not help the style of policing.

Sometimes information regarding car-jacking benefited the hijackers, so it was not easy to publicise this information. Some of the carjackings were not aimed at the actual car, but rather the contents inside the vehicle, especially delivery vans. This was a section they would look into developing. The police were indeed worried about murders, and there were also a number of undocumented individuals being murdered. There were currently 11 000 undocumented individuals in South African prisons. Corruption was across the board, and South African National Defence Force members had been arrested for assisting criminals to execute carjackings across the borders. The question of criminality existed across the chain.

General Sitole suggested that the current system of appearing before the Committee did not provide the Department the opportunity to present new strategic plans. It was currently leading the sub-continent from the initiatives put in place. Some of the Department's strategic plans were at the Interpol level. South Africa was dominating the international best system. However, these initiatives did not necessarily find the platform to be presented, as they could not be responded to in the form of a question-and-answer format. Currently, there was the "policing nomics," which was being piloted across the national boundary, which was an initiative of the SAPS

The Commissioner said that he would instruct the communication component to investigate the possibility of having a hotline.

He said that the Department had no intentions of sharing more operational information.

The Chairperson agreed with the Minister that there needed to be a separate session at which the statistics could be discussed at a deeper level and to greater lengths. This would also allow for the discussion of possible improvements within the Department on how to respond to these crime statistics. These meetings would focus not only on the numbers and figures but also on the opportunities to address the challenges faced.

She said that during the previous engagement in November 2021, SAPS had stated that the review of the performance management system would include performance penalties. It had indicated that underperforming station commissioners would be managed, and there was an expectation that some would be changed. It had constantly been reiterated that there could not continue to be the same stations that were the worst performing in every report.

The Chairperson thanked the Minister for having their crime statistics report quarterly, as opposed to annually, as this allowed the Committee to zoom in to the realities of the country. SAPS had spoken about the restructuring and reorganisation of the system, with the profiles were being assessed to establish if they were suitable for an individual to be in a particular role. She referred to docket analysis to assess the impact of alcohol on contact crime. During the COVID-19 period, there had been a reduction in crime. She said there should be an assessment of murders and attempted murders to consider the blood alcohol level of both the victims and the perpetrators.

The Minister had constantly raised the issue of environmental designs in his engagements with various departments. She suggested that at some stage there should be a focus on some of the top stations in terms of the crime statistics, and how these were influenced by the environmental designs which were quite challenging.

It had also been suggested that SAPS should use the per capita ratio on contact crimes for all provinces, to ensure an accurate comparison between the provinces. She also indicated that the crime statistics data dissemination policy and the revision policy should be published as soon as they were approved.

The presidential expert panel had indicated that the role of private security service providers had come into focus during the civil unrest in KZN and Gauteng. The expert panel had been mandated to make findings on the role played by the private security service providers. The report had shown that businesses had to rely on private security providers to secure their properties, although there was still damage. The panel had said that the Private Security Industry Regulatory Authority (PSIRA) would be more effective if they worked with the SAPS, and SAPS would be more effective if there was a crime prevention strategy between SAPS and PSIRA. The Committee would be looking at a partnership that needed to be formalised between these two entities, under the guidance of the expert panel.

The Chairperson said there would be a special meeting, as requested by the Minister, that would be convened to look at the ways of responding to issues. She added that the crime statistics of this quarter had provided a much clearer picture than the previous quarter. The last report had included an activation plan, and she commended the fact that the activation plan was bearing fruits. She wished the Department and the Minister well on the release of the crime statistics to the public.

The Chairperson went ahead to discuss the logistics of the oversight visit with the Committee Members.

The meeting was adjourned.

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