Community Safety
(1) Whether the Department has identified, through its Court Watching Briefs Programme, any incidents involving SAPS officials who did not follow the correct regulations or processes;
(2) whether the Department has alerted the SAPS management; if not; why not; if so, what are the relevant details?
[1] All the incidents reported on in the quarterly reports to the Provincial Commissioner since the existence of the Watching Brief Unit are about violations by various police officials in various ways. Below are a few examples.
[a] The police officials fail to finalise the investigation of cases timeously and the matters are then struck off the court rolls resulting in the accused being released back into the community;
[b] The police officials fail to ensure that the police docket is at court which results in the matters being struck off the rolls because the case cannot proceed. The accused is then also released back into the community;
[c] The police officials fail to serve witness subpoenas on state witnesses to attend court in order to testify in the cases resulting in the witnesses not being at court and the matters having to be postponed or struck off the rolls because the trial cannot proceed;
[d] The police officials fail to serve summonses on accused person according to the Criminal Procedure Act. The result is that the accused does not appear in court and the magistrate cannot issue warrants for their arrest because of the failure to properly serve the summonses.
[2] Yes. As mentioned the Provincial Commissioner is alerted on a quarterly basis of all various incidents as mentioned in paragraph [1][a] to [d]) where police officials acted inefficiently or ineffectively.
