A staggering 283 cases at 33 courts, linked to 82 South African Police Services (SAPS) stations across the province, were struck off the court roll due to police inefficiencies between October 2022 and March 2023.
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This is according to the second and third quarter reports of the Western Cape Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety’s (POCS) Court Watching Briefs (CWB) unit.
These consist of 153 cases monitored during quarter three at 15 courts covering 40 SAPS stations and 130 during quarter four at 18 courts, covering 42 SAPS stations.
The third quarter report also consists of a post-monitoring brief of eighty-four (84) murder cases at 20 SAPS stations.
This is 33 fewer murder cases than the 117 dockets requested from SAPS.
Of the 283 cases, 77 are Gender Based Violence (GBV) related, while the other 206 matters, amongst others include assault-grievous bodily harm(GBH), murder, aggravated robbery, possession and dealing in drugs and possession of firearms and ammunition.
‘These statistics paint a very grim picture, which deeply disturbs me,’ said Western Cape Minister of Police Oversight and Community Safety Reagen Allen. ‘More so that these are real people who have been dismally failed by the South African Police Service and the entire criminal system.’
‘What is further alarming is that these are the cases that we have monitored, which would suggest that there could be many similar matters that are also being thrown out of court.’
‘The indictment is damning and clear. Investigators work under immense strain and at times they each sit with well over 200 dockets.’
‘This failure does however not justify their inability to comply with their oath and fulfill their constitutional mandate.’
Allen said that he would engage the SAPS Provincial Commissioner, Lieutenant General Thembisile Patekile, in order to establish whether the officerswill be held accountable.
‘I will not sit by and continue to allow this type of failure to persist within SAPS. The pain, suffering and injustice that the victims have to endure has to be addressed and there should be recourse for the victims. We have made a number of recommendations based on these findings. One of them is that SAPS should develop an improvement plan to minimise the number of cases that are struck off the roll due to their inefficiencies.’
‘I will also engage the Western Cape Director of Public Prosecutions, Advocate Nicolette Bell, as we have to gain insight into what has to improve to ensure these types of results are not repeated. I am aware that there is a standard operating procedure between investigators and prosecutors, and it has to be ascertained where the breakdown is. Our people who are victims deserve better across the board, and we have to work towards eradicating these shortcomings.’
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