{"id":831848,"date":"2025-07-18T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-18T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=831848"},"modified":"2025-07-18T06:38:41","modified_gmt":"2025-07-18T04:38:41","slug":"trust-in-south-africas-police-tanks-to-new-low","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/831848\/trust-in-south-africas-police-tanks-to-new-low\/","title":{"rendered":"Trust in South Africa’s police tanks to new low"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The South African public\u2019s confidence in the police is currently at an all-time low, with just 22% of citizens saying they strongly trust the country\u2019s law enforcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to research by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), which reports that trust in policing has almost halved since 1998.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The research is based on the HSRC\u2019s South African Social Attitudes Survey series, conducted since 2003, where views on crime and policing are a thematic priority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the research centre, between 2,500 and 3,200 interviews are conducted annually with participants aged 16 and up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This data has been supplemented with public opinion surveys from the HSRC dating back to the early 1990s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the data paints a bleak picture of how South Africans view policing in the country, with trust levels never surpassing 50%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1998 is the first year for which data is available, and according to survey results, 42% of the country was confident in the police at the time, and 41% distrusted them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust climbed to 47% in 1999 \u2014 the highest it has ever been. Similarly, distrust dropped to 37%, the lowest ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite a sharp decline in 2000, dropping to 39%, confidence levels remained relatively stagnant until the end of 2010, reaching a high of 46% and a low of 39%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, trust dropped dramatically between 2011 and 2013, down to 28%, attributed to the Marikana massacre of August 2012. At the same time, distrust skyrocketed to 60% in 2013.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trust and distrust had formed a criss-cross pattern up until 2011. However, HSRC points to significant divergence between the two from this point onwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By 2015, public distrust in South Africa\u2019s policing had dropped to 48%, while confidence rose to 38%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fluctuations again remained steady over the next five years, with distrust reaching a high of 54% and confidence a low of 31%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the two again saw significant divergence following the first survey results from the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of 2020, confidence stood at 34%, while distrust was at 48%. Over the next few years, distrust reached an all-time high of 66% in 2023 and confidence a low of 22% that same year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the reporting period, those who said they were neutral about policing fluctuated between 11% and 19% of respondents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa suspends police minister<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The HSRC’s report highlighted the emphasis former Police Minister Senzo Mchunu placed on building public trust in law enforcement agencies at the National Police Day commemorations in January.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Internationally, the legitimacy of legal authorities is recognised as crucial for the state\u2019s ability to function in a justifiable and effective manner,” it stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The minister\u2019s reflections drew attention to a persisting legitimacy challenge in the police-public relationship.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This followed KwaZulu-Natal Police Commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi directing several allegations at the South African Police Service, the Police Ministry, and other law-enforcing authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mkhwanazi accused Mchunu of sabotaging a probe into political killings by seizing 121 open case files in March and pushing to disband the team tasked with the probe. Mchunu rejected the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The accusations were followed by calls from various political parties and other stakeholders for Mchunu to be suspended, fired, or, in some cases, arrested.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A week after Mkhwanazi’s briefing, President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered a national address where he announced the formation of a judicial commission of inquiry into the allegations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If true, they threaten to undermine the entire police service and their ability to fight crime and corruption, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, he said that he had placed Police Minister Senzo Mchunu on leave with immediate effect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ramaphosa appointed Firoz Cachalia, a former ANC politician and current law professor at the University of the Witwatersrand, to serve as acting Police Minister in the interim.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until Cachalia can take up this position, Ramaphosa has appointed current Mineral and Petroleum Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe to fill Mchunu’s role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/a>
Former Police Minister Senzo Mchunu<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Data from the Human Sciences Research Council shows that trust in South Africa’s policing has halved since 1998.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":733317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[23149,2261,12184,23147,20266,19613,5784,23148],"class_list":["post-831848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-commissioner-nhlanhla-mkhwanazi","tag-gwede-mantashe","tag-hsrc","tag-human-sciences-research-council-hsrc","tag-president-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-senzo-mchunu","tag-south-african-police-service-saps","tag-south-african-social-attitudes-survey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831848"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":832025,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831848\/revisions\/832025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/733317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}