Calls for better psycho-social support for SAPS officers

Dear Editor

The DA extends its heartfelt condolences to the families of the two SAPS officers who lost their lives this past Sunday in a tragic shooting incident in Limpopo. This event follows closely on two similar incidents in the North West in May 2024, when two more SAPS officers took their lives over a single weekend.

According to recent reports from the Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (Popcru), at least 300 SAPS officers have committed suicide since 2017, raising serious questions about SAPS’ current capacity in providing ongoing safe, confidential, and specialised mental health support to its members. It also raises questions about the adequacy of SAPS’ pre-employment mental and psychological screening procedures and whether they are fit for purpose.

The SAPS’ 2022/2023 Annual Report records a total of 138 psychological professionals, 57 “Quality of Work Life” professionals, 205 social workers, and 190 chaplains operating in SAPS employee wellness programmes. These individuals are responsible for the mental wellness of approximately 180,000 SAPS employees, all operating in extremely high-stress and high-risk environments.

With a 28,7% vacancy rate for psychologists and vocational counsellors within the SAPS, capacitating this division presents a significant challenge for top management that must be tackled with the utmost urgency.

Concerns surrounding the SAPS’ employee wellness programmes were raised as early as 2022, when the SAPS conducted its “Organisational Climate Survey”. The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee at the time expressed grave concerns about the “poor health and wellness services” within the SAPS.

While strengthening our police service’s operational capacity is key to building a safer society and kickstarting our economy, we must not neglect the health and well-being of the men and women on the ground who put themselves in harm’s way to keep us safe. Building effective, confidential, and specialised mental well-being programmes within the SAPS should be a priority for the Ministry and lawmakers alike.

Importantly, these programmes should also ensure that SAPS leadership understand and engage with the extreme pressures faced by our boots on the ground, so that they may be placed in a better position to support their staff and engage effectively with the extraordinary challenges they face on a daily basis.

The DA remains committed to working with law enforcement across the country to ensure that our officers in blue receive the care and support that they need to stay healthy and on the job. The DA will also be submitting focused parliamentary questions to the Minister of Police, Senzo Mchunu, to obtain further information on this matter so as to better engage with the SAPS on the way forward.

Regards

Ian Cameron MP
DA Spokesperson on Police