A staggering number of detectives left the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the past year.
A total of 527 detectives voluntarily left the SAPS in the nine-month period between 1 October 2023 and 19 July 2024.
This was confirmed by the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu in a response to a parliamentary question posed by Rise Mzansi Member of Parliament, Makashule Gana.
Mchunu revealed that in addition to the 527 voluntary departures from the police service, there were also a shortage of some 8 594 detectives across South Africa’s nine provinces.
KwaZulu-Natal, Western Cape and Eastern Cape are leading in detective vacancies, accounting for 1 629, 1 555 and 1 465 vacancies, respectively.
The provinces with the least amount of shortages are Gauteng (490) Mpumalanga (519) and North West (545). While the Free State, Northern Cape and Limpopo account for mild shortages of 695, 783 and 913, respectively.
What this means is that the fight against crime is going to get even harder. Detectives are a critical and necessary component of police work.
The departure of droves of detectives coupled with ineffective frontline policing, failing crime intelligence, and wanton corruption and sleaze in the police service, only spells trouble for the fight against crime.
This, together with a lethargic and sometimes outright incompetent court and justice system, only spells trouble for South Africa’s fight against appalling crime levels.
