Police inefficiency causes 200 cases to be dropped in three months, Western Cape report finds

Nearly 200 cases before Western Cape courts between April and June 2022 were withdrawn as a result of inefficiencies by the South African Police Service (SAPS). 

In a statement on Wednesday, MEC Reagen Allen said 36 gender-based violence cases monitored by the team between April and June had been withdrawn or struck off the roll due to systemic failures. Of these, 25 had been withdrawn because the dockets were not brought to court, and eight because the investigation was incomplete, Allen said.

Earlier this week at an event organised by Action Society, abuse survivor Janelle Laattoe from Mitchells Plain told how failures by the state and police, in particular, had caused her more trauma.

“For three years I was in a relationship that turned sour. I endured every form of abuse. I had my arm crushed to the point where I need ligament reconstruction, I have a metal plate in my arm, and I have permanent scars from being dragged down a tarred road,” she said.

Laattoe said she opened a case at Delft police station in 2019. Her abuser made several court appearances but the case was withdrawn in December 2021 for the state to get more medical reports and statements. She resubmitted the evidence to the investigating officer in January, but when she asked about the case again in July, she was told the docket was missing.

“Some women are scared to come forward because they say what’s the point if justice is not going to be served,” said Laattoe.

Action Society’s Ian Cameron said the organisation would ask the Independent Police Investigative Directorate to investigate.

Cameron said in its own visits to police organisations across the metro, the organisation had found that dockets often went missing, “not necessarily because of a criminal offence, but because of the chaos in which some of these detectives need to work”.

“Many of the detectives in the Cape Flats region have more than 300 dockets on their tables,” he said.

In response to a list of written questions by GroundUp, Western Cape SAPS spokesman Andrè Traut only provided a general comment about police vehicles not always being available due to maintenance. He did not respond to our question about how police manage dockets. DM

First published by GroundUp.