Statement by Nicholas Gotsell MP – DA NCOP Member on Security & Justice:
The DA has uncovered deeply troubling indications that SAPS Western Cape have allowed members convicted of criminal offences to remain in service for years without properly implementing Regulation 5(3)(dd) of the SAPS Discipline Regulations, 2016, the very regulation designed to deal with members once they have been convicted of crimes.
The DA will take immediate steps to investigate these failures that continue to hamper the credibility of the SAPS.
Internal SAPS correspondence and documentation now point to an urgent and highly confidential retrospective verification exercise covering the period from 2016 to 2026, triggered only after the DA intensified its parliamentary scrutiny regarding criminal elements in the SAPS. This raises serious questions about whether SAPS Western Cape ever had an effective system to centrally monitor, track and enforce disciplinary processes against criminally convicted members.
The 164 cop-convictions span an alarming range of offences, including murder, culpable homicide, assault with intent to inflict grievous bodily harm, pointing of firearms, driving under the influence, reckless driving, shoplifting, burglary, theft, drug-related offences, fraud committed by employees in positions of trust and contempt of court amongst other serious criminal conduct. In several instances, members included in the list are linked to multiple convictions or offences committed over a number of years.
Most concerning is that it has now been confirmed that, in certain cases, these convictions stood for prolonged periods without the prescribed Regulation 5(3)(dd) processes being properly finalised. This means convicted members have remained operational within SAPS structures for years despite the regulations requiring conviction-triggered disciplinary intervention to assess whether a convicted member should continue to serve as a SAPS member and officer of the law.
The question now is whether this is yet another catastrophic failure of leadership under Western Cape Deputy Provincial Commissioner for Support Services, Maj. Genl. Preston Voskuil, whose name has already surfaced repeatedly in relation to the rape kit supply crisis and broader management failures within SAPS Western Cape or whether it is part of the Provincial Commissioner, Lt. Genl. Thembisile Patekile’s condonation of criminals serving in the SAPS.
Under Patekile’s leadership, SAPS Western Cape has already faced criticism from the Acting Minister of Police for controversial interventions in disciplinary matters involving members found guilty of serious misconduct. These controversial cases include the reversal or variation of dismissals in cases such as those involving W/O Sahabodien, as well as Constables Williams and Hendricks, where members implicated in serious misconduct involving theft, fraud, drugs and misuse of SAPS resources were permitted to remain within SAPS structures after Patekile altered their dismissal sanctions and replaced them with mere two-month suspensions.
It was as a result of the latter case that the Acting Minister of Police conceded, in reply to a parliamentary question posed by the DA, that the powers exercised by provincial commissioners under the 2016 SAPS Discipline Regulations had become problematic and required review. That concession followed growing concern that disciplinary outcomes were being inconsistently overturned or diluted at provincial level.
The emerging picture is therefore deeply alarming: a SAPS leadership structure that appears unable and unwilling to consistently enforce integrity standards within its own ranks while frontline communities continue to suffer under violent crime, gangsterism and collapsing public confidence in policing.
The DA will lay a formal complaint against Patekile and Voskuil and will request an urgent investigation into this egregious dereliction of duty.
We will also intensify parliamentary oversight into the apparent systemic failures surrounding Regulation 5(3)(dd), including the possibility that convicted SAPS members were retained in operational, tactical and financially sensitive environments for years without proper disciplinary resolution.
