Protector or predator? - Institute for Security Studies

Gareth Newham and Andrew Faull
The Corruption and Fraud Prevention Plan (CFPP) stated that it aimed to
educate SAPS employees and the public about the nature and consequences of
corruption and the actions to be taken to expose it, and described the measures
the SAPS would take to address it. 116 It did this by briefly outlining activities such
as corruption prevention training and risk assessments to be undertaken by different
components of the organisation (although it did not state how these activities
linked to the four prongs).
The SAPS admitted that it struggled to implement previous anti-corruption
strategies, particularly due to lack of support from senior management and inadequate
monitoring of implementation requirements. 117 It was also recognised that
these strategies were not user-friendly and did not provide commanders with
practical examples of what was required from them. While the documents were
disseminated to SAPS Provincial Headquarters, there is little evidence that the
strategy was implemented, even though the CFPP was mentioned in the performance
agreements of all divisional, provincial and station commissioners, as well
as national component heads. 118
One of the additional challenges to addressing corruption following the
closure of the ACU in 2002 is that comparable data on corruption complaints, investigations
and arrests is not available in SAPS reports. Instead the SAPS started
to report on the number of suspensions of police officials each year, and indicated
what proportion of these suspensions related to corruption (except in 2006 and
2007, when corruption cases were not separated from other police offences). The
lack of clear and consistent data makes it very difficult to assess whether the
police are making any headway in addressing cases of corruption.
The number of cases dealt with as indicated in Figure 2, when considered as a
proportion of the organisation as a whole, is very small. In the last financial year
for which figures were available, 2009/10, only 362 SAPS personnel were charged
under the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act (2004), with 193
being suspended. With a staff of 190 199 in March 2010, this accounts for a mere
0,002 per cent of the workforce having been charged with corruption. When
these figures are compared with the findings of research on public experiences
of police corruption it would seem that the vast majority of members involved
in corruption and other offences escape both detection and formal punishment.
In 2010 the SAPS began updating the CFPP, and renamed it the Anti-Corruption
Strategy (ACS). An elaboration of the four-pillar approach envisaged for the ACS
was presented by the SAPS as follows:
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