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Against the backdrop of the furore around the Detective Dialogues in Parliament yesterday, a parliamentary reply has provided further evidence that training for detectives is sorely lacking.

The DA has previously highlighted the lack of training in dealing with sexual offences, with only 3.3% of SAPS members having been trained in this regard. In addition, only 932 detectives of the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Unit (FCS Unit) received training between 2008 and 2011 on the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences Course. There are 2080 FCS detectives. This means that less than half of the detectives responsible for investigating one of the most prolific crimes in South Africa are actually trained to do what they do.

In the reply received from the Minister of Police yesterday, it was confirmed that training was on-going, but that refresher training had yet to commence. So in other word, detectives who were trained on the Sexual Offences Act in 2008/2009 have not received refresher training since that time.

The Minister’s reply explains why so many sexual violence cases never reach the courts. Training numbers are low and continuous training is not happening. Trained detectives are important because without the appropriate knowledge and skills, evidence is damaged or missed, cases aren’t investigated properly, cases are thrown out of court and most importantly, justice is not served.

I will submit follow-up questions to the Minister to determine the frequency of refresher training for all detectives as well as how many specialist detectives have yet to receive training. In addition, I will write to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police to request that Minister Mthethwa be called to the committee to present a plan to Parliament on how he will deal with the lack of training of detectives.