Almost 5 000 police in the country lack training

Lusanda Bill
15 October 2010

Divisional Commissioner for Detective Services Ray Lalla addressed the Parliament's portfolio committee on police yesterday and revealed shocking facts.

He told MP’s that nearly 5 000 of the country's detectives lack the essential 14 weeks of training for the job.

He stated that the police department is facing a backlog of 4 845 detectives who had undergone only the two weeks of training in detective work, that forms part of the curriculum for all police officers.

The head of police training, Major General Stian Nyalungu, told MPs severe challenges remained because the police had limited capacity at their Hammanskraal and Boland colleges to carry out detective training.

Portfolio Committee Chairperson Sindi Chikunga said to the police officials “You are saying you are going to address this backlog and probably this has been said repeatedly in the past. But the question is what systems are you putting in place to ensure that you address this backlog?”

The MP’s then stated that the fact that the criminal justice system is struggling to secure convictions, is because there is a lack of proper training.