Public trust in the SAPS has dropped to its lowest level in decades, as leadership challenges and corruption leave communities feeling unsupported and unheard.
(The Post News)- After two decades of steady decline, trust in the police has now hit its lowest point, with tensions between KwaZulu-Natal’s police commissioner Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi and Police Minister Senzo Mchunu making a difficult situation worse.
Findings from the HSRC’s 21st South African Social Attitudes Survey show that just 22% of South Africans trusted the police in 2022, and that number has barely shifted in 2023 and 2024/25, marking the lowest confidence levels in nearly three decades.
According to the study, South Africans have been losing trust in the police since the late 1990s, with major blows to confidence after events like the Marikana killings in 2012 and the July 2021 unrest; while there was a small recovery around 2015, trust never fully bounced back and has kept falling since.
“This growing distrust is reflected in statements from key officials; ‘The public simply does not feel like the police will show up when they call,’ said Ian Cameron, chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Police, a view that echoes the growing frustration among communities who no longer believe the police are there for them.”
Cameron said the real issue lies in deep-rooted corruption and a failure to hold people accountable. “Lack of integrity management is a major crisis. The arrests and charges and infighting within the South African Police Service over the last few years has just made it far, far worse than before.”
Dr Benjamin Roberts, the HSRC’s principal investigator, said the survey reflects nearly three decades of tracking public trust in the police, with the data pointing to ongoing concerns about legitimacy. “A majority of the adult public never expressed trust in the police, suggesting that police legitimacy has been a longstanding issue,” the report noted.
Chad Thomas, organised crime expert and CEO of IRS Forensic Investigations, says the decline in public trust stems from leadership failures, pointing out that for the past 25 years, several police commissioners were politically appointed despite having no policing experience.
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