Recent improved capacity and performance in the SAPS, while encouraging, is resulting in a bottleneck situation for the national prosecuting authority (NPA) and courts, which can be expected to worsen over the next few years if not dealt with, a recent report by human security research institution, the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) shows.

The report, 'Paying for crime: South African spending on criminal justice' , examines spending trends in South Africa's criminal justice system (CJS) and compares local spending, capacity and workload to global data.

Presenting a summary of the report to stakeholders and academics yesterday, ISS senior researcher Antony Altbeker said that research showed that South Africa's spending on criminal justice is relatively high in comparison to global norms of per capita spending and as a percentage of GDP.

Capacity levels are generally on a par with international averages, and are currently improving, he said.

However, in relation to murder rates (used as a benchmark because murders are generally the best-reported and recorded crimes), South Africa has a notably low proportion of police officers, prosecutors and convictions.

However, in 2004/5 South Africa spent about 3,1% of GDP, compared with a global norm of around 1%, which implies that much more spending on the CJS would probably be unaffordable.

Further, Altbeker said, a strong case can be made for any further spending to rather go to social services, particularly as this has been shown to assist in reducing crime, if only indirectly.

Police growth not matched by courts and prisons

SAPS personnel numbers, after sliding in the late 1990s, have rebounded to some 156 000, the majority of which have been allocated to visible policing and administration.

National Treasury Deputy Director-General Andrew Donaldson said that the police, headed by Jackie Selebi, have done well in identifying priorities for resource-management and in internal reorganisation and that the process has resulted in better productivity.

“We are already beginning to see some payoff in crime trends and patterns, although it must be remembered that these things take time to emerge,” he said.

However, while police personnel numbers have risen by 31%, numbers in the NPA and courts have grown by only 18% and 9% respectively and staff levels at the Department of Correctional Services have risen by a meagre 8% in the last five years.

Further, since 2000, the number of cases going to court has risen by 84% but the number of prosecutions has grown only by 31%, Altbeker said.

While there is an obvious need to tackle the problem, there are a number of questions as to what the best solution is.

He pointed out, in particular, that it would not be fair to stimulate growth in the DJ and DCS at the expense of the police, as this would only serve to effectively 'punish' the department for improvements in performance.

In defence of long-term budget policies

Donaldson also responded to a criticism in the report of the government's three-year medium-term estimates framework (MTEF), saying that it has, in fact, helped focus policy and budget decisions on forward-thinking perspectives.

“Although any change in thinking will take time, we have definitely seen an improvement,” he said.

He added that the framework also enables research and independent studies, such as the ISS one, to be brought into budget decision-making.

“We have recognised that we need to make more of an effort to involve good-quality research in public policy and budget planning.”