Mashatile tells NCOP government is ‘cleaning up’ SAPS as MPs press on oversight

Deputy President Paul Mashatile told the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Thursday that government is reinforcing anti-corruption measures inside the South African Police Service (SAPS) as Members of Parliament pressed him over oversight failures and progress on accountability.

Measures under way to detect and deter corruption

Mashatile said specialised units and reinforced investigative capacity are being used to detect and prevent corruption within SAPS. He told MPs that the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI) had strengthened its Serious Corruption Investigation Units to handle complex matters such as procurement fraud, public sector corruption and state capture-related crimes. He added that the DPCI was working closely with the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) through prosecution-guided investigations.

Dedicated investigative teams are pursuing SAPS officials linked to the Madlanga Commission, and some are already facing criminal charges in court, Mashatile said. He also said senior SAPS officials were undergoing vetting by the State Security Agency.

Accountability, audits and disciplinary reviews

Mashatile told the NCOP that internal audits, ethics programmes and oversight mechanisms in SAPS were being reinforced to improve accountability across the service. He said the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) cluster continued to coordinate corrective actions to strengthen accountability and tackle corruption.

On disciplinary processes, Mashatile said the Acting Minister of Police was reviewing the 2016 disciplinary regulations with input from National Treasury and the Government Technical Advisory Centre, aiming to strengthen enforcement and close gaps.

Parliamentary scrutiny and responses to criticism

DA MP Paul Swart asked whether government had failed to detect corruption earlier. Mashatile rejected that claim, saying anti-corruption work within SAPS had been ongoing for years and that while the Madlanga Commission had helped uncover additional cases, government had not been inactive.

“We are not going to wait for the Madlanga Commission to discover more. We are going to do it ourselves. We are doing it, and we are strengthening and closing all the loopholes,”

EFF MP Virgill Gericke had questioned the effectiveness of oversight structures such as the JCPS cluster. Mashatile described the cluster as a coordination mechanism that depends on departmental reporting and cannot independently detect internal wrongdoing if information is withheld or distorted. He said government was strengthening systems and removing compromised officials, adding:

“Once people are exposed, like the Madlanga Commission is doing, it means those people must be removed,”

Restoring public confidence

Asked by Patriotic Alliance MP Bino Farmer how public confidence in SAPS could be restored, Mashatile said government was working to clean up the police service and to replace corrupt officials with credible personnel.

“We are cleaning up the service. We are going to ensure that we take out rotten potatoes from the bag and ensure that credible men and women of integrity are brought in,”

Mashatile also described continued coordination by the JCPS cluster and reinforced investigative activity by specialised units as part of broader governance interventions in the criminal justice system.