Detective shortages in South Africa: a looming national crisis for crime investigations

South Africa's investigative ability is facing a serious crisis with 1,9 million case dockets and detectives sitting with 300 to 500 dockets each. On top of it is a growing concern about the experience of detectives with more and more younger police officers absorbed into the detective services.

 Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, described the current backlog as untenable. Mchunu said the shortage of detectives is hampering the timely investigation of cases, which in turn affects the prosecution process.

“The shortage of detectives causes serious backlogs in respect of the investigation of cases and processing of cases for prosecution."

"The minister has reported on previous occasions that there is a backlog of 1.9 million case dockets within the South African Police Service, which is untenable,” the police ministry shared.

Only 15.1% of SAPS members are currently deployed in detective roles—far below the 20% target…a figure  revealed in a November 2024 police briefing, which laid bare the extent of the shortage.

Of the 20,376 officers recruited over the past two years, just 3,142 were assigned to detective services.

Johan Burger, a police expert from the Institute for Security Studies, said there are not enough detectives to deal with the growing crime levels.

"And I'm talking about serious and violent crimes. The other problem is with the effectiveness of the detectives who don't have enough training.” 

He said while crime rates are soaring, the number of trained detectives has almost halved since 2016, just when serious and violent crimes began to spike. At that time the number of detectives dwindled to 40%, he said.

He said a concerted drive to rehire experienced detectives who had left the service failed because the core problems; poor conditions, low morale, and lack of incentives remain unresolved.

Ian Cameron, Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police said there are detectives handling 300 to 500 dockets each.

"It’s physically impossible. They're expected to investigate, update dockets weekly, go to court, work with prosecutors, and attend post-mortems—no one can manage that workload, ” he said.

Referring to the provincial breakdown on detective shortage, Cameron said Limpopo and the Northern Cape had the highest shortages of detectives, with a reported 38% shortage. This is followed by the Western Cape and Free State at 35.5% and 33%, respectively.

He said the lack of mentoring is also a concern. “New detectives are thrown in the deep end, especially in stations like Delft or Manenberg. There’s no time for proper training. It’s a nightmare.”

Cameron suggested that uniformed officers assist with minor case elements to ease the burden on detectives.

Such is the lack of faith in the police's ability to properly investigate crime that some have turned to private investigators. 

Private Investigator, and founder of Uniq Investigations, Desmond Finnis, said there is a growing demand for private investigative services due to unresolved or poorly handled police work.

“They often feel their rights have been violated or that a proper investigation was never conducted.”

Finnis also pointed out that they often work on cases such as cybercrime, culpable homicide, and domestic violence involving the rape of minors—cases he said should have been properly handled by police detectives. 

“Unfortunately, in South Africa, many detectives lack sufficient training and experience. A constable with only 12 months of visible policing experience may be promoted without even knowing how to complete a docket for court. Detectives often arrest suspects without proper preliminary investigation, and this then spills into the court system, where the NPA is then wrongly blamed for poor outcomes, but it all starts with the investigation. The slogan should be ‘investigate to arrest,’ not ‘arrest to investigate.”

Finnis himself was a victim to a botched investigation, when the detective on duty failed to collect evidence, gather witness statements and draw blood, at the scene where Finnis' ex-wife Yolande Geduld, 51, his son-in-law Kurt-Lee Carolus, 30, and his four-year-old granddaughter Tara-Lee Carolus, from Strand, died when a bakkie rammed into their Peugeot 306 after it broke down on Baden Powell Road in 2021.

"The Monday when the detective came to the scene, he was reeking of alcohol. He didn't know who I was, but I observed everything, asked questions. He failed to do a lot. I then ended up investigating the case myself and he was dismissed from the force and the driver was sentenced."

“Improvements are needed in investigative training, use of forensic technology, and collaboration among stakeholders to ensure better outcomes and justice for victims,” said Finnis.

Specialist investigator and crime expert Mike Bolhuis, known for his work in serious violent, economic, and cybercrimes, said he anticipates that the detective capacity will remain a huge problem for years. 

““The detective-to-case workload is unmanageable. Some detectives handle 300 to 500 dockets, which is simply undoable. The public is aware and tends to rely on the few capable officers, increasing their load further.”

"It's no use the police say, 'yes, give us information, be informants, expose the crime, bring us the criminals', and then there is a problem in communication and they don't want to take it, investigate it and even don't want to assist or there's an attitude problem. We've seen this many times," said Bolhuis.

Bolhuis also highlighted a shortage of officers, a lack of specialized units, and poor technological capacity.

“He warned of extreme misplacement of personnel, comparing it to asking a painter to fix a diesel engine.

“Unless an officer is fit, committed, trained, and focused solely on justice, we don’t have a police force—we just have people doing jobs they are not cut out for,” said Bolhuis.

In response to this crisis, Police said they've initiated the '10000 intake project', a strategic program designed to mitigate the effects of personnel shortages.

“The SAPS’ 10000 intake project has enabled the SAPS to deploy some of the new constables to become detectives. These constables are trained in specialized areas that will enable them to carry out their duties. In addition, the SAPS, together with Business Against Crime SA, has agreed to partner on several projects; one of these projects is the training and equipping of detectives.”