We need a new approach to policing from Minister Senzo Mchunu.
Listen to this article 11 min Listen to this article 11 min The appointment of Senzo Mchunu as minister of police has generally been greeted with enthusiasm. Considering that his term as minister of water affairs and sanitation is widely regarded in a positive light, there is room for optimism.
But his task as minister of police is likely to be more challenging.
Substantial amounts of public money have been invested in the SAPS - more than R113-billion in the current financial year, which is expected to rise to more than R124-billion in 2025/26. But questions about how to actually improve the service have been neglected. The assumption repeatedly and mistakenly made is that increasing the budget, and hiring more police officials, will be sufficient to improve its performance.
The SAPS has deteriorated against many of its own performance indicators, or stagnated. For example, the number of murders solved by the SAPS has declined from 31% in 2011/12 to just over 12% in 2022/23. In 2021, surveys found that about three out of four people had little or no trust in the police.
In the absence of a clear strategy for improving the performance of the SAPS, the Institute for...
