More than 5000 police officials have found themselves on the wrong side of the law.
This was disclosed by Police Minister Bheki Cele following a parliamentary question from the Freedom Front Plus.
Minister Cele revealed that since 2019, at least 5 489 police members were arrested for various criminal offences.
Of that figure, 383 arrests were made for serious crimes including murder, rape and livestock theft.
FF Plus leader Pieter Groenewald the statistics “demonstrate just how deeply rooted criminality is in the police force”.
He said the Minister Cele disclosed these figures to the FF Plus after first being unable to produce the figures a few weeks ago and offering the excuse that the relevant information system was faulty.
“Among the 383 serious crimes for which police members were arrested are 84 incidents of murder, 109 of robbery, 79 of rape, 29 of livestock theft, 78 of kidnapping and 4 cash-in-transit heists,” Groenewald said.
