In all, 5.4 million case dockets were closed over the five-year period, including 40 000 attempted murders and 62 000 rapes.
Murder is the most heinous of crimes. The deliberate taking of another’s life shrieks eternally for resolution.Over the past five years, the SA Police Service has closed – meaning thrown in the investigatory towel – almost 77 000 murder dockets.Solve rates for all crimes have dropped precipitously. In 2012, Saps was able to solve 34% of the murder cases opened, but it has been falling steadily and by last year this was down to 12.4%.
No further attempt at achieving justice. This is political smoke and mirrors. When using overly simplistic quantitative management methods, it’s tempting to just close dockets.Gareth Newham, head of the justice and violence prevention programme at the Institute for Strategic Studies says the ploy is part of a “serial crisis” in the top management of Saps.Tweaking the murder statistics is not only morally abhorrent to the victims and their families.
The Detective Services personnel are underpaid and overworked. Low morale, fuelled in part by race barriers to promotion, has led to Saps shedding a third of them over the past half-dozen years and now has only 17 000 left. “But it has to start at the highest management level of Saps. You have to get the right people in there, give them the authority and the political backing for reform.”
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