The South African Police Service (SAPS) has paid out nearly R1-billion in civil claims over the past two years, national commissioner Fannie Masemola has revealed.
Masemola, in response to questions from MPs, said the men in blue paid R367-million in the 2020/21 financial year and a further R470-million in the 2021/22 period.
“It must be noted that the amounts paid do not necessarily emanate from incidents that occurred in the current financial year but may emanate from claims instituted in previous financial years, but finalised in the current financial year,” he said.
When pressed on what the police top brass were doing to train police officers to avoid similar claims in the future, Masemola assured MPs that there are measures in place to curb incidents that lead to the police being sued over the conduct of its members.
“SAPS has implemented the civil claims presentation that was approved by the national steering committee on contingent liability and downward management of civil claims, which is implemented for the basic police development training of SAPS recruits. The presentation consists of contributing factors of civil claims and the consequences of these actions in the SAPS,” Masemola said.
“To date, 495 recruits have been trained on the civil claims presentation and 16 basic trainers have been orientated on the presentation to implement it to the remaining trainees currently attending the basic police development learning programme. It is envisioned that all the remaining [trainees] will be trained on the presentation on/or before 2022-12-09.”
