Police have paid out over R2.2 billion in civil claims for wrongful arrests and detentions since 2018.
Police have paid out over R2.2 billion in civil claims for wrongful arrests and detentions since 2018.
This is according to a parliamentary response by Police Minister Bheki Cele when DA MP Andrew Whitfield asked him about the liability of the SAPS and the ministry to settle claims for damages for wrongful arrests, whether by court order or by settlement agreement.
He asked about the total value of claims settled in the past five financial years.
The total value for claims paid in respect of claims relating to arrest and detention is as follows:
• 2018/2019 - R356 205 508.
• 2019/2020 - R329 657 948.
• 2020/2021 - R239 299 759.
• 2021/2022 - R346 220 870.
• 2022/2023 - R541 751 164.
• 2023/2024 - R406 953 173.
“Any amount due and payable to a claimant is only determined upon the finalisation of the claim against the SAPS,” Cele said.
“This depends on various factors, such as the evaluation of the merits of a claim, a determination of liability on the part of the SAPS and judgment in favour of claimants etc.”
Whitfield said it was clear Cele was running an understaffed, underfunded and undertrained SAPS.
“A crippled reservist corps with 93.3% less personnel than a decade ago, critical detective shortages across the country, police response times that leave citizens stranded and helpless, and an operational staffing component with fewer officers than we had in 2019 –this will be the minister’s legacy, or rather, lack thereof,” Whitfield said.
Crime expert Calvin Rafadi said many cases would come from people being held for over 48 hours without being charged.
“Crime intelligence is sleeping on duty, they are supposed to prevent organised crimes and be proactive. The normal detective comes in the aftermath of every scenario, once that happens they want to close the case and please their bosses, so they activate the 72 hours (activation plan) mostly on high profile cases. To get cellphone records takes a minimum of two weeks. In 72 hours you can end up arresting the wrong people.”
He added that the police ministry also had a legal panel which could be open to corruption.
“We call for lifestyle audits on all officials handing matters to the legal panel – they are the ones who can speak on allocation. There are rotten apples not only in the SAPS, Treasury has to look at government panels, the same corruption takes place. When it comes to allocation of files, we need to do lifestyle audits on those officials,” Rafadi said.
Dumisani Quiet Mabunda, an associate professor in the College of Law at the Unisa school of criminal justice, said: “This is a question of audit. Auditing what police are doing in terms of spending, to find if there is no abuse of resources, and there must be accountability of people in charge of those resources. The money can be spent but it must be justifiable,” he said.
Cape Times
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