Why South Africans are losing faith in the police: Insights from the HSRC study

IOL News

15-07-2025

The latest HSRC study shows that public trust in police continues to decline.
Image: Armand Hough / Independent Newspapers
The SAPS will have to work hard to rebuild public confidence, as the latest study shows that trust in the police continues to decline.
The research conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council's (HSRC), through the South African Social Attitudes Survey (SASAS), revealed that only 22% of citizens expressed trust in the police.
This shows that trust in the police has declined significantly over the past two decades.
The survey found that trust levels in the police have remained relatively low over the 1998 to 2024/25 period.
Notably, during these 27 years, a majority of the adult public never expressed trust in the police, which suggests that police legitimacy has been a longstanding issue.
Over the 1998 to 2010 period, the average level of trust in the police was relatively static. It ranged between 39% and 42% in all but a few years.
This was followed by a sharp decline between 2011 and 2013, following the Marikana massacre of August 2012. However, confidence had almost returned to the 2011 level by the time of the 2015 survey round.
The 2016 to 2020 period was characterised by modest fluctuation between 31% and 35%. The hard Covid-19 lockdown experience, which included instances of police brutality in enforcing lockdown regulations, did not appear to have had an aggregate effect on confidence levels based on the 2020 survey results.
In 2021, public trust in the police dipped to a low of 27%. This appears to be linked to the July 2021 social unrest. Many criticised the poor performance of the police during the unrest.
This was followed by a further 5 percentage point decline to 22% in 2022, with the 2023 and 2024/25 confidence levels almost unchanged, which may reflect increasing rates for certain crimes.
Timothy Makoe, a resident of Palm Springs in Evaton, endorsed the study, saying police are no longer taking their job seriously.
Makoe said he reported a case of fraud after his details, including a banking card, were used to open an account at the Edgars store last year, but it has never been attended to.
Another resident, Teboho Maleke, said the recent allegations made by the KwaZulu-Natal commissioner, Lieutenant General Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi, worsened the situation.
'This shows why these people have been failing to deal with crime in our communities. There are a lot of drug dealers around here who are well-known, but they have never been arrested. This also proved that the rot starts from the top, which explains why they are failing to discipline their employees,' he said.
The HSRC also stated that Mkhwanazi's allegations represent another decisive moment for policing in South Africa, the outcome of which will have a significant bearing on the project to rebuild public trust.
Mkhwanazi implicated senior SAPS officials in corruption during his recent media briefing, claiming that police have failed to act on evidence tying firearms to high-profile killings, including those of prominent South African artists.
He accused Police Minister Senzo Mchunu of sabotaging critical crime-fighting efforts by ordering the disbandment of the Political Killings Task Team — a unit established in 2018 under President Cyril Ramaphosa's inter-ministerial committee (IMC) to tackle politically motivated murders.
Mkhwanazi alleged that Mchunu, in collaboration with Deputy Commissioner General Shadrack Sibiya, withdrew 121 case dockets from the team in March 2025, leaving them untouched at the SAPS headquarters in Pretoria, despite five being ready for arrests.
He also claimed that Mchunu was in constant communication with criminal syndicates, naming a businessman, Vusimuzi 'Cat' Matlala, and an associate, Mr Brown Mogotsi (also referred to as Mahodi or Maki in various statements), as key players funding Mchunu's political activities.
The survey also found that well-publicised instances of police abuse or failure can also seem to reduce public confidence, while perceptions of police corruption also had a strong, negative effect on police confidence.
Meanwhile, South Africa has a high crime rate and is considered a dangerous country, particularly for violent crimes.
According to the SAPS, 5,727 people were murdered during the first quarter of 2025, which is between January and March, 10,688 people were raped, while 11,111 common robberies, and 35,374 commercial crimes were reported.
Independent crime and policing consultant, Dr Johna Burger, said the declining levels of trust and confidence in the SAPS over the last two decades were predictable, adding that the National Development Plan of 2012, Parliament's Detective Dialogue Report of September 2012, and the 2018 report by the Panel of Experts on how to strengthen and improve the SAPS, are some of the reasons for this decline as none of the recommendations were implemented.
'The SAPS have, over the years, and in many instances, abused their own appointment and promotion policies, enabling them to appoint persons into senior positions for which they were not suitably qualified. The recent highly publicised appointment of a female brigadier from outside the police in Crime Intelligence is a good example.
'Also, the SAPS' internal disciplinary processes have all but collapsed, leading to a loss of accountability and demonstrating poor command and control. E.g., between 2012 and 2024, disciplinary hearings decreased by 70%. This decline led to a 483% increase in civil claims for various types of poor and unlawful conduct by its members, paid out by the SAPS,' Burger said.
Gareth Newham, head of the Justice and Violence Prevention Programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), said this is because there is corruption within the police and many officials who are not interested in their job.
ISS manager of the crime and justice information and analysis hub, Lizette Lancaster, said trust in law enforcement is critical for policing to succeed because they can greatly influence how a civilian interacts with a SAPS member, potentially impacting the outcome of a situation, including whether they cooperate, whether a situation escalates, or whether a person feels comfortable reporting a crime or coming forward as a witness.
She said ISS made several recommendations to strengthen policing in South Africa in 2024. These include suggestions on how to restore pride in the profession and uniform.
Lancaster said for this to succeed, measurable improvements are needed in recruitment, training, performance management and accountability mechanisms.
The principal investigator of the study, HSRC's Dr Benjamin Roberts, said this analysis provides context on the extent and nature of the challenge, highlighting variations and drivers of public perceptions on policing.
He said the findings are expected to inform interventions aimed at restoring public faith in the police.
'The findings of this study underscore the urgent need for SAPS to prioritise building public trust and confidence. By adopting a more community-focused and accountable approach to policing, we can work towards creating safer and more secure communities for all South Africans,' he said.
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