‘There is no culture of corruption in SAPS’ – police

POLICE in the province have refuted claims of alleged corruption in the service contained in the recently released 2021/22 Policing Needs and Priorities Report.

The police officials appeared before the Standing Committee on Community Safety, Cultural Affairs and Sport yesterday to respond to the report, where they were also taken to task over other issues it contained, including the number of lost case dockets and inadequate human resource capacity.

According to the report, between 2009 and 2021, 1 303 corruption investigations were lodged against police members in the province, and resulted in 680 members being found guilty. Of these, 304 were dismissed, and others received lesser sanctions.

The report further said that in 2019/20, about 33 police officers were arrested on charges of corruption, business robbery, defeating the administration of justice, fraud, extortion, kidnapping, and theft, further recommending that corruption in the service be addressed decisively.

Among the findings in the report were the continued skewed policing resource allocation, especially in poorer neighbourhoods, and genderbased violence, substance abuse and gangsterism, which remain among the most serious issues plaguing communities in the province.

Greed, failure to live within their limits, and wanting a more lavish lifestyle were some of the reasons the members would be caught up in corruption, the committee was told.

Leading the presentation, the provincial police head of Audience Strategic Management, Kgopotso Mawela, said there was no culture in the police service that promotes corruption. Mawela said most of the corruption-related arrests were a result of police action to root out corruption in the service.

Mawela said the government-wide anti-corruption strategy was implemented with no bias.

She said the police service has zero tolerance for corruption, and the internal anti-corruption strategy was developed and implemented to ensure that all senior managers were subjected to vetting processes and all financial personnel and middle managers completed financial disclosures annually.