More than 5.4 million dockets were closed due to lack of evidence between2018 and 2023.
Dockets for crimes including rape, murder, robbery, assault, hijacking and burglary were among those closed in the last five months after police investigations did not yield enough evidence.
This emerged from the information obtained by the DA under the Promotion of Access to Information Act (Paia).
The party requested information months after former police minister Bheki Cele in a reply to parliamentary questions released information showing that more than 5.4 million dockets were closed due to lack of evidence between 2018–19 and 2022–23.
Now, the figure stands at 6.2 million from the period covering 2018–2019 until December 2023.
The figures show a breakdown of 11 categories of crime.
The breakdown according to the categories of crime is as follows:
DA MP Lisa Schickerling said the information furnished by current Police Minister Senzo Mchunu painted a disturbing picture, particularly in light of Women’s Month celebrations, and highlighted key areas of concern in both docket management and the capacity and staffing shortages in the SAPS’s detective services.
Schickerling said in terms of case dockets lost from SAPS, the highest numbers belonged to dockets in cases of murder, assault GBH, and aggravated robbery.
“According to the minister, 68.75% of dockets stolen from SAPS stations were open cases of rape and sexual assault (all of them in the province of Limpopo), raising serious questions about the effectiveness of docket management within the SAPS and the maintenance of docket safety.
“We call upon the minister and national commissioner to launch a full-scale investigation into these missing and stolen dockets.”
The information showed that 33 dockets were reported stolen during the same period.
“The DA will write to the chairperson of the portfolio committee on police to request that the minister, the national commissioner, and the Limpopo provincial commissioner be brought before the committee to discuss these matters and to present to the committee their plans to remedy these critical failures within the SAPS,” said Schickerling.
Cape Times