DA questions sexual offences conviction rate against SAPS members 

5 May 2015

I will today write to both the Chairpersons of the Portfolio Committee’s on Justice and Police requesting that they convene a joint sitting of their Committees. This is in order to allow Parliament to comprehensively scrutinise the reasons behind the worryingly low conviction rates against members of the South African Police Service (SAPS) for sexual offences.

This follows a reply to a DA parliamentary question where the Minister of Police, Nathi Nhleko, stated that from 2011 to 2014, 917 sexual offences cases against the SAPS had been reported. Of these 917 reported cases only 481 – or 52.5% - were referred to court. Of these cases, only 12.47% resulting in convictions.

There is clearly a miscommunication between the investigation phase – performed by members of SAPS – and the prosecution phase – performed by the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). Parliament must be allowed to ascertain whether SAPS members are performing sub-standard investigations, if they are, whether or not it is a deliberate ploy to protect their colleagues; and whether this inevitably leads to flimsy grounds on which to prosecute. If it is determined that the SAPS are not deliberately undermining the judicial process, the joint committee must ascertain whether or not the NPA is presented with well investigated cases and simply fails to properly prosecute.

Every day that the causes of the unacceptably low conviction rates are not dealt with, more SAPS sex offenders are getting away with this abhorrent abuse. It is a national disgrace that we have nearly a thousand SAPS members arrested for sexual offences, yet so few convictions against these criminal members of the SAPS.

Victims of sexual offences suffer from diverse negative impacts that are profound. It affects their physical and mental health and their interpersonal relationships with family, friends and partners. More than this, the impacts of sexual assault go beyond the individual, to have a collective impact on the social wellbeing of our communities. 

South Africans who will no longer accept the high levels of crime by the very people tasked to combat it deserve to know who is failing to defend them and their bodily integrity. The days of the police and prosecutors working in silos is clearly not working and must be overhauled.

Statement issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard MP, DA Shadow Minister of Police, May 5 2015