A staggering 283 cases monitored by the provincial police oversight and safety department were struck off the court roll between October 2022 and March 2023 due to police inefficiencies.
This was revealed in the second and third quarter reports of the provincial police oversight and community safety’s Court Watching Briefs (CWB) unit.
These cases that include 84 murder cases, were monitored at 33 courts linked to 82 police stations across the province.
The courts monitored in the northerns suburbs of Cape Town are located in Bishop Lavis, Blue Downs, Bellville, Goodwood and Kuilsriver; and the police stations attached to the cases are Kuilsriver, Brackenfell, Kraaifontein, Ravensmead, Mfuleni, Goodwood and Delft.
Kraaifontein (8) and Kuils River (6) police stations were on the Top 3 list of stations with the highest numbers of incomplete investigations.
Other reaons cited for cases being withdrawn included dockets not being in court, outstanding forensics reports and witnesses not being subpoenaed.
According to a report of the CWB, 77 of these cases are gender based violence (GBV) related, while the other 206 matters, among others include murder, aggravated robbery, possession and dealing in drugs and possession of firearms and ammunition. Of the 77 GBV cases 48 were withdrawn due to an incomplete investigations and 22 due to dockets not being in court.
“These statistics paint a very grim picture, which deeply disturbs me. More so, that these are real people who have been dismally failed by the entire criminal system,” said Reagen Allen, provincial police oversight and community safety minister.
“What is further alarming is that these are the cases that we have monitored, which would suggest that there could be many similar matters that are also being thrown out of court.”
Recommendations
He added the indictment is damning and clear. “Investigators work under immense strain and at times they each sit with well over 200 dockets. This failure does however not justify their inability to comply with their oath and fulfil their constitutional mandate.”
He continued to say that he would engage the provincial police commissioner, Lieut Gen Thembisile Patekile, to establish whether the investigating officers will be held accountable.
“The department have made a number of recommendations based on these findings, one being that police develop an improvement plan to minimise these numbers.” He added that he would also engage with the director of public prosecutions, Advocate Nicolette Bell, to gain insight into the disconnect between investigators and prosecutors.
“Our people who are victims deserve better across the board, and we have to work towards eradicating these shortcomings,” added Allen.
