With calls for urgent reform echoing throughout South Africa, the SAPS is under pressure to transform its recruitment and leadership practices from the ground up, aiming to restore integrity and public trust.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) finds itself at a crossroads, as experts demand a sweeping transformation that tackles the root causes of its integrity and leadership crises, rather than settling for surface-level solutions.
Policing analysts insist that reclaiming the organisation’s mandate requires swift, wide-ranging reforms, including a total overhaul of recruitment and vetting to guarantee that every new member embodies unwavering ethical standards.
This was discussed during Tuesday’s webinar by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), which had invited Parliament Portfolio Committee on Police Chairperson Ian Cameron; Associate Professor at the Centre of Criminology at the University of Cape Town Professor Irvin Kinnes; and Gareth Newham, special adviser to acting Police Minister Professor Firoz Cachalia, to discuss what must be fixed first in the SAPS amid the Madlanga Commission.
Kinnes highlighted eight steps that must be taken to change things.
