The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes, with outrage, the revelations contained in the recently tabled 2024/25 Annual Report of the South African Police Service (SAPS), which lays bare a police institution that has completely collapsed under the weight of corruption, incompetence and deliberate deception. The report confirms beyond doubt that the ANC government has turned the police service into a lawless and dysfunctional bureaucracy.
The Auditor-General’s findings expose a pattern of systematic dishonesty. SAPS leadership has resorted to manipulating and inflating performance data to create the false appearance of progress while communities are being terrorised by criminals every day. The report shows that in some cases, the police invented success rates that do not exist.
For example, in one investigative programme, SAPS claimed that it had solved more than half of crimes at construction sites, when the real achievement was less than seven percent. In other instances, figures on recovered vehicles, firearms and crime reductions were found to be unreliable or exaggerated. This is beyond an administrative mistake but it is the institutionalisation of lies, a betrayal of Parliament and the South African people.
The rot is most visible in the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which has completely failed in its constitutional duty to support justice. The backlogs in processing DNA and forensic exhibits have grown by more than half in one year, leaving thousands of criminal cases unresolved. For three consecutive years, this division has not met a single one of its targets, meaning victims of murder, rape and assault are being denied justice because evidence sits unprocessed on laboratory shelves. The police leadership hides behind excuses of staff shortages while spending almost eighty percent of its R113 billion budget on salaries, most of which go to administration, not to forensic or investigative work.
The report also reveals that SAPS spent every cent of its budget, yet the streets of South Africa remain a war zone. This full expenditure is not a sign of efficiency, but of a desperate effort to drain public money before the end of the financial year without delivering anything of value. Billions are wasted on salaries and internal overheads while police stations crumble, forensic systems collapse, and communities wait hours for help that never comes. This is the ANC’s definition of service delivery: spending without substance, paperwork without protection, and budgets without outcomes.
Corruption has become normalised as irregular expenditure increased to nearly R3 Billion with no real disciplinary consequences or financial recovery, including those tenders given out to criminal kingpin Vusimuzi “Cat” Matlala. Out of over R900 million in identified cases, most remain under investigation, meaning the same officials responsible for financial mismanagement continue to hold office. Civil claims against SAPS have also exploded, with over R25 billion in new claims and more than R800 million paid out in the last year alone, mostly for unlawful arrests and detentions. The police have become serial violators of the Constitution, arresting citizens illegally and brutalising communities while taxpayers pay the price.
The culture of impunity runs deep. Out of almost 4 000 disciplinary cases, nearly half ended with no punishment and either withdrawn or resulting in “not guilty” outcomes. Additionally, only 10% of guilty officers were dismissed, the rest merely received written warnings, proving that corruption, misconduct and brutality are tolerated within SAPS.
This is the same organisation that lost 8 452 of its own firearms in one year, almost 23 every day, many of which end up in the hands of the same criminals police claim to be fighting. The leadership continues to treat such staggering failures as success because targets are set so low that mediocrity passes as achievement.
The report also reveals a disturbing failure to protect women and children. Crimes against women and children have increased, yet the SAPS failed to include measurable targets for gender-based violence in its annual plan. This indifference shows contempt for the suffering of the most vulnerable in our society. The so-called action plans and steering committees are meaningless while women continue to be raped and murdered, and children are brutalised daily with no justice.
The picture painted by this report is a picture of a criminal syndicate dressed in uniform. The ANC government has destroyed what little integrity remained in the SAPS and the SAPS 2024/25 Annual Report is a mirror reflecting a state that has decayed beyond recognition under ANC rule. It exposes a leadership incapable of protecting its people or upholding the Constitution, which has been illuminated by the current inquiries taking place through the Madlanga Commission and the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee into the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team.
This is why the EFF championed the establishment of the Ad Hoc Committee on the infiltration of the SAPS, a critical intervention in Parliament we are leading with determination and clarity. Through this committee, we will resolve on final recommendations that will lay the foundation for a reformed, accountable, and corruption free police service that truly serves and protects the people of South Africa.
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