CAPE TOWN - Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia vows a turn-around strategy is being implemented by the South African Police Service.
He praised the work of the Madlanga Commission in assisting their efforts to effect a clean-out of corrupt elements in the police service.
Cachalia tabled a R127-billion budget for the 2026/27 financial year for the SAPS, IPID and Civilian Secretariat for the Police Service.
The Minister said the main threat to South Africa's institutions and the economy remains organised crime.
Cachalia stressed the importance of a visible and responsive police service, but most of all one that can be trusted.
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He vowed that efforts are underway to improve the efficiency of the SAPS.
“Strengthening Crime Intelligence is a key priority. Effective crime intelligence is necessary to fight organised crime; it must identify threats early, infiltrate organised criminal networks, prevent violent crime and guide operational deployments through credible information and analysis”
However, MPs from other parties were less optimistic about government’s plans to fight crime proactively, raising various objections to Cachalia.
Mmusi Maimane, Bosa leader said: “Our fundamental issue in dealing with crime is the fact that SAPS is facing a 6000 men and women deficit, the budget must respond to that problem, it must speak to the fact that when detectives are overworked, the fundamental response is 21-million criminal cases which were opened in South Africa of those, only 61,7% were closed without being resolved, that means 13,2 million victims never saw justice.”
The DA's Ian Cameron said the deeper problem within SAPS is the management of the money that is allocated.
"At the moment in the Western Cape for the Narcotics Unit provincially, only three out of ten vehicles work. All of them have over 300 000 kilometres on them for the entire province for organised crime specifically, only 17 operational vehicles for the whole of Western Cape."
MPs have further called for a full overhaul of policing, including cutting duplicate roles, improving forensics and strengthening efforts to combat organised crime.
Report by Kevin Brandt