Corruption and the South African Police Service: A review and its implications

This paper provides an overview of research on corruption in the organisation with an introduction to SAPS’s latest approach to corruption busting

In 2002 the South African Police Service’s (SAPS) anti-corruption unit was shut down after six years of apparently successful work. Since then the organisation has struggled to develop and implement a new corruption combating plan. While it is arguably impossible to measure the extent of corruption in the SAPS, research points to a correlation between rising public perceptions of police corruption and a loss of faith in policing institutions. Corruption thus threatens the legitimacy of one of the country’s central structures of justice.

In 2007 the SAPS was due to roll out a barrage of anti-corruption measures as part of an ambitious plan to clamp down on corruption in its ranks. In light of these developments this paper provides an overview of previous research on corruption in the organisation together with an introduction to SAPS’s latest approach to corruption busting.

This paper represents an independently funded collaboration between the Crime and Justice and Corruption and Governance Programmes at the Institute for Security Studies.

About the author

Andrew Faull is a research consultant working in the field of police reform. He has previously worked as a researcher for the Institute for Intercultural and Diversity Studies of Southern Africa (iNCUDISA) on issues of diversity and transformation in the South African Police Service. Andrew was a visiting scholar at New York University while working towards his MPhil in Diversity Studies from the University of Cape Town.

The author would like to express his gratitude to all who made this paper possible, particularly those at the South African Police Service. Special thanks to Senior Superintendent Craig Mitchell of SAPS Strategic Management. Thanks too to Chandré Gould and Hennie van Vuuren for their contributions.