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Yesterday, the DA issued a statement in which we stated that the South African Police Service (SAPS) annual report showed that R7.6-billion had been spent on paying out civil claims. This statement ought to have read that R7.6-billion had been earmarked for expenditure on civil claims, in the form of contingent liabilities. In other words, the figure does not represent the amount actually paid out, but rather the amount budgeted. We apologise unconditionally for this error.

It is, however, important to note that this does not alter the validity of the key points we made:

First, that there has been a 31% rise in claims in just 12 months, pointing to rising levels of police brutality and a lack of accountability in the police. This highlights the urgent need to give the Independent Complaints Directorate (ICD) real teeth to hold errant officers to account.

Second, that the SAPS legal services division is in a state of disrepair - the fact that just R57.4-million was actually paid out, while billions of rands of claims were left unresolved, lends credence to reports of claimants taking three or more years to have their claims processed, and points to a looming crisis in the SAPS legal services division.

Nor does it change the fact that the average police officer accounts for more than R50,000 in civil legal claims, and that the total amount set aside for civil claims could pay for another 75,000 additional police officers this year.

The fact is that nearly one-fifth of the police budget is now earmarked for expenditure on civil claims, even while the SAPS top brass ignores the findings of the Edward Nathan Sonnenbergs report which showed legal services divisional commissioner Lindiwe Mtimkulu is completely incapable of performing her duties, and suffered from "a fundamental misunderstanding of the law and legal processes".