Twelve police officers with criminal convictions, and hundreds more facing criminal charges, are still active members of the Eastern Cape South African Police Service. This includes officers convicted of aiding and abetting prisoners to escape, fraud, assault with intent to do grievous bodily harm, and reckless and negligent driving.
There are a further 217 criminal cases involving SAPS officers in the province that remain under investigation. In other words, nine out of ten officers facing criminal charges have yet to face any outcome at all.
Not only have these officers broken the law they swore to uphold, they also violated the trust of the residents they serve, some going so far as putting criminal elements back on the street in a province where you are more likely to be raped or murdered than anywhere else in the country.
These damning revelations were made by Community Safety MEC, Xolile Nqatha, in response to a parliamentary question from the Democratic Alliance in relation to an officer currently deployed in the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) Unit in Nelson Mandela Bay, who returned to duty this month. The officer pleaded guilty in an internal disciplinary hearing to aggravated robbery, possession of stolen property, and unlawful possession of a firearm, receiving a two-month suspension without pay. The criminal case against him remains ongoing.
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In that matter, MEC Nqatha confirmed that a Captain chaired the disciplinary hearing despite the SAPS Discipline Regulations of 2016 requiring otherwise. Regulation 5(4) mandates expedited action in cases that involve criminality, dishonesty, or conduct that brings the service into disrepute. Regulation 9 requires that an officer of Brigadier rank or higher chair such cases. This was not followed.
This breach raises serious questions about other disciplinary cases that have allowed convicted criminals to remain in positions where they are supposed to enforce the very laws they have been found guilty of breaking.
Were their disciplinary hearings also chaired by junior officers? Were proper procedures followed before allowing these criminals to remain in the service? Who authorised these outcomes?
The DA will submit further questions to the MEC for full breakdown of each of the disciplinary proceedings, whether these complied with the regulations, what mitigating factors were considered, and who approved the retention of members found guilty of serious offences.
I will be writing to the National Commissioner to request a comprehensive review of all SAPS members with criminal convictions or pending criminal charges in the Eastern Cape, including an examination of the disciplinary processes followed in each case and whether these processes complied with national regulations.
Residents of the Eastern Cape deserve a police service they can trust. That trust cannot be rebuilt while convicted criminals remain on the payroll and hundreds of cases are left unresolved.
There must be consequences, both for the officers who break the law and for those who are shielding them from accountability.