Part 13 - Saps

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responsibilities. 20 The South African distribution appears to be the opposite of international
policing norms. While the ratio of sergeants to constables is 1.5 to 1 in South Africa, it is 1
to 4.5 in Australia, 1 to 5 in Britain and 1 to 6.4 in the United States. Sergeants and
constables comprise over 90% of all members in Australia and Britain. In South Africa
they comprise under a third (30%) of total staff (excluding civilian personnel). 21 The result
is that there is no real differentiation of function between non-commissioned officers. The
virtue of a military-type structure, with every incident having a clear line of responsibility
associated with it, is blurred in the SAPS.
As a consequence of the relatively small number of junior ranked officers, the SAPS has
become an over-managed organisation, where the higher management echelons devour
personnel-related resources at the expense of junior officers responsible for station and
street-level policing work. However, the low proportion of constables in the SAPS will be
alleviated significantly by the recruitment of the additional 30,200 entry-level constables
by early 2006.
Criminal investigations
The general quality of the police’s detective work appears to have declined in the post-
1994 period. This was partly to be expected. Before 1994, the South African Police (SAP)
used authoritarian policing methods and tough law enforcement strategies to combat crime.
Using a confession based approach to solving crime, some SAP detectives were more
concerned about getting crime suspects convicted than upholding the law and conducting
investigations in a legally correct manner. 22 Changing from a confession based to an
evidence based manner of collecting evidence, required a significant change in the way
many experienced detectives performed their work.
Detectives are overloaded with cases – as much the result of mismanagement than of vast
numbers of cases alone. Instead of teaming up to tackle cases on a case by case basis, each
detective gets an unmanageable load to tackle on his own. 23
Detectives argue that, at the most, they can properly deal with ten serious cases at any one
time. Officially, the ideal number of dockets per detective is 18. 24 However, even
detectives from specialised units often have to handle 50 or 60 matters at any one time.
The consequence of such overloading is that the investigation is administered rather than
the case solved. Investigated cases become so old that they are eventually dropped as the
complainant, witnesses, and other persons involved lose interest. Alternatively, evidence
may be lost and witnesses’ memories may fail them. Withdrawals of charges, and
prosecutors declining to prosecute are often the result.
20 Leggett T. ‘Everyone’s an inspector: the crisis of rank inflation and the decline of visible policing’ in SA
Crime Quarterly 1 (Institute for Security Studies,Pretoria, 2002) p 23)
21 Ibid.
22 See Altbeker A. Solving crime. The state of the SAPS detective service (Institute for Security Studies,
Pretoria, 1998) p 49, where the point is made that a confession driven investigative approach did not
dominate all SAP detective units. Many units – especially those dealing with less serious crimes - relied
less on confessions and complied more closely with the law.
23 Redpath J. Leaner and meaner? Restructuring the SAPS detective service (Institute for Security Studies,
Pretoria, 2002)
24 S. V. Tshwete, Minister of Safety and Security, written reply to parliamentary question no. 1111, National
Assembly, 15 June 2001.