Shocking figures indicating how many police members have been arrested for crime since 2019 demonstrate how deeply rooted criminality is in police force
26 September 2023
The fact that a total of 5 489 police members have been arrested for criminal offences since the 2019/20 financial year demonstrates just how deeply rooted criminality is in the police force.
Of the 5 489 cases, 383 arrests were made for serious crimes including murder, rape and livestock theft.
The Minister of Police, Bheki Cele, disclosed these figures to the FF Plus after first being unable to produce the figures a few weeks ago and offering the excuse that the relevant information system was faulty.
Among the 383 serious crimes for which police members were arrested are 84 incidents of murder, 109 of robbery, 79 of rape, 29 of livestock theft, 78 of kidnapping and 4 cash-in-transit heists.
According to the Minister, no policeman was arrested for alleged involvement in a farm murder.
In his evasive reply in July, the Minister said, among other things, that he is "fully aware of the serious implications" of police members' involvement in crime and, in particular, the impact it has on the public's faith in the police force.
He added that it is vital to first "put a system in place" to gather, control and verify all the information relating to police involvement in crime.
It appears that this has now been done after the FF Plus insisted that the answers must be provided before 30 September (the end of this month).
It is unacceptable that pressure had to be put on the Minister before a system was put in place to determine the extent of criminality among police members by means of a regularly updated database.
Without detailed information, no preventative measures can be put in place to prevent criminality or effectively address it.
These figures clearly show that there is a serious problem with criminality in the police force and the public cannot be blamed for increasingly losing faith in a police service which is run by incompetent persons.
Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus leader, 26 September 2023
