Detective crisis in South Africa – where two-thirds of murders go unsolved
South Africa has over 8,000 vacant detective positions, limiting the police’s ability to solve crimes.
Responding to a question from Rise Mzansi MP Makashile Gana, Police Minister Senzo Mchunu said that the South African Police Service currently employs 22,413 detectives.
However, there are currently 8,594 vacancies for detectives across the country.
Of all the provinces, the KwaZulu-Natal has the most vacancies at 1,629. The Western Cape is in second place with 1,555 vacancies.
Despite having the largest population and largest number of positions, Gauteng had the fewest vacancies at 490.
When looking at the number of vacancies as a percentage of total roles, the Northern Cape is the worst-performing province, with 42.61% of detective roles unfilled.
Limpopo is in second place on a percentage basis, with 38.67% of detective roles unfilled.
Besides Guateng’s 7.12% vacancies, every other province in the country has over 20% of its detective roles currently vacant.
In his response to Gama, Mchunu said that 527 detectives left the South African Police Service (SAPS) between 1 October 2023 and 19 July 2024.
| Province | Actual Workforce | Fixed Establishment | Vacancies | % |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 3 510 | 5 139 | 1 629 | 31.69% |
| Western Cape | 3 038 | 4 593 | 1 555 | 33.86% |
| Eastern Cape | 2 721 | 4 186 | 1 465 | 35.00% |
| Limpopo | 1 448 | 2 361 | 913 | 38.67% |
| Free State | 1 469 | 2 252 | 783 | 34.77% |
| Northern Cape | 928 | 1 631 | 695 | 42.61% |
| North West | 1 366 | 1 911 | 545 | 28.52% |
| Mpumalanga | 1 623 | 2 142 | 519 | 24.23% |
| Gauteng | 6 310 | 6 800 | 490 | 7.21% |
Gana said that many cases go unsolved because there are just not enough detectives.
According to City Press, detectives in the Western Cape have to work up to 300 cases at a time due to the shortage of personnel in their department.
South Africa is infamous for its high crime rate, but other statistics from the Department of Police show that the SAPS is struggling to bring criminals to justice amid the shortage of detectives.
In a separate response to the Democratic Alliance, former Police Minister Bheki Cele said that 5.4 million case dockets were closed without results due to a lack of evidence of leads since the 2018/19 financial year.
Mchunu provided a further breakdown showing the formation of the total number of dockets closed for serious offences without result:
- Murder: 76,655
- Attempted murder: 40,089
- Assault GBH: 141,026
- Aggravated robbery: 256,162
- Rape: 61,740
- Sexual Assault: 5,523
- Kidnapping: 9,114
With South Africa recording close to 115,00 murders over the five-year period, roughly two out of three murders since 2018/19 in South Africa have not been solved.
If one breaks down the numbers, about 1,278 murder cases are closed each month without a result, while 974 cases of rape and sexual assault also hit a dead end.
“This is a deplorable state of affairs that requires urgent intervention from both the Minister and senior SAPS management to ensure that cases of gender-based violence and violence against women are treated with the seriousness and care that they deserve,” said the Democratic Alliance.
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