This follows a written parliamentary reply by Police Minister Senzo Mchunu, that the SA Police Service (SAPS) has a detective vacancy rate of just over 8 500.

Mchunu says these figures exclude the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation commonly known as the Hawks.

Mchunu says, countrywide, SAPS is operating with much less than the required 31 000 detectives. Rise Mzansi Member of Parliament, Makashule Gana says it's concerned because some of the provinces with high vacancy rates are crime hot spots, “The response that the minister gave that there are 8594 vacancies that remain open for detectives should be a big concern for all of us considering that we've got high crime rate in the country and that many cases go unsolved even the detectives that are in the employ of South African police service they are overwhelmed by the number of cases that they have to attend to".

--ChannelAfrica--