The South African Police Service (SAPS) submitted an adjusted budget summary for Vote 28 on Wednesday, 30 October 2024. The intended purpose of the vote is to ensure SAPS can “prevent, combat and investigate crime, maintain public order, protect and secure the inhabitants of South Africa and their property, and to uphold and enforce the law.”
The summary judges the progress of the SAPS in achieving set targets, such as detection rates, reported crimes and cases ready for trial, among others. As for the SAPS’ progress, “the main reason for the relatively low achievement of targets relating to detection rates for various crimes is the attrition of detectives through retirement, resignation and promotion, resulting in a higher caseload per investigator,” notes the summary.
However, it further notes an improved level of collaboration with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), which has resulted in the “expedited the enrolment and processing of case dockets.” This has been aided by the introduction of “dedicated tracking teams for wanted suspects and forensic investigations,” which have led to “an improvement in the detection rate for crimes against women and children, both exceeding quarterly targets.”
Furthermore, the improvement in “communication and collaboration between prosecution and investigation teams, strict adherence to prosecution-guided investigation processes and effective case planning” has noticeably resulted in significant progress in the preparation of dockets for trial, specifically for cases of serious corruption. Trial-ready case dockets for serious corruption in the public and private sectors saw the SAPS ready 789 dockets for the NPA.
The SAPS did not set quarterly targets for the registration and closing of investigations into serious organised crimes and crime intelligence network operations, “as this work is complex and requires extended time to resolve. However, it is expected that the annual target will be achieved.”
The target for percentage of police stations with functional community police forums (CPF) was 1158, with the SAPS nearly fully achieving the target, with 1155 functional CPFs.
Compared to the first half of 2023/24, expenditure over the same period in 2024/25 increased by R4.8 billion, 9.2%. This was due to “the implementation of the 2023/24 public sector wage agreement and increased visible policing operations conducted during the 2024 national and provincial elections.”
