Cape Town - The Western Cape has the highest number of police officers identified as perpetrators of domestic violence, far more than the figures of the two provinces after it.
The province, along with Free State and Gauteng recorded the highest number of police officers identified among 178 perpetrators of domestic violence at 111 police stations over the six-month period ending in March.
The Western Cape recorded 91 members, followed by the Free State with 30, Gauteng 30 and North West 11. Some 80 officers were found to be victims of domestic violence in at least 49 police stations.
This emerged in a report SAPS commissioner Fannie Masemola tabled in Parliament recently for the period between October 2021 and March 2021.
Masemola is required in terms of the Domestic Violence Act to submit a bi-annual report on complaints received against members for violation of the legislation and steps taken against the officers.
“The SAPS provides information on the number of serving members who have contravened the Act, the action against such members and also members who are victims of domestic violence,” he said.
KwaZulu-Natal recorded eight perpetrators, Northern Cape five, Limpopo three and Eastern Cape two and Mpumalanga one.
Among the victims, the Western Cape and Free State were leading with 45 and 18 respectively.
He said 54 complaints were received against serving members for failure to record domestic violence incidents in the occurrence book, failure to arrest the perpetrator, failure to assist a complainant to open a case, failure to serve protection orders, and failure to render satisfactory service to the victim.
The report showed that at least 17 complaints related to failure to record domestic violence incidents in the occurrence book and 28 notices to complainants in cases of domestic violence.
Masemola said 11 members were subjected to disciplinary proceedings in the prior period between April 2021 and September 2021.
The affected officers received sanctions including written warnings and verbal warnings. As part of mitigating plans, Masemola said there was a steering committee on gender-based violence (GBV) and an inter-divisional forum to address identified implementation gaps.
He said there was a compliance forum held quarterly and led by the Civilian Secretariat of Police Service as well as the joint capacity work sessions between SAPS and the Civilian Secretariat targeting station commanders, visible policing commanders and relief commanders. Masemola has approved the monitoring of implementation of the SAPS GBV and sexual offences action plan on March 15.
“The implementation of the SAPS GBV case management intervention plan ensures that GBV desks are operational at all police stations,” he added.
Anti-GBV activist Reverend June Major-Dolley said she was not surprised by the figures.
“They (police) face and see traumatic experiences on a daily basis and even though they do have a psychologist at their disposal, (some) choose not to go for debriefing. All of that eventually takes its toll on them and they take it out on the next person. They have just suppressed feelings and traumas. On the other hand again, officers like the fact that they have power. The gun and badge gives them a sense of power and they exert their power on others. The harshest (action) needs to be (taken) and they have to face prison time and if need be they must be expelled from the police service. It is unacceptable,” said Dolley-Major Action Society’s Ian Cameron said many members were not in a psychological state of mind to deal with the stresses and pressures of being in the service after they were “not vetted properly”.
“It’s an increasing problem over the past decade. In a country facing the GBV pandemic, it’s very worrying to know that there is this amount of potential criminals in the police service and these are the members that need to be trusted by women and children - again, another call for desperate and urgent police reform,” said Cameron.
Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union did not respond to questions by deadline.
Cape Times