62% of South Africans have no trust in the police

Public trust in South Africa’s law enforcement agencies has fallen to historic lows, amid multiple investigations into the country’s criminal justice system.

A new report from the Institute for Security Studies has warned that corruption across the South African Police Service (SAPS), metro police, and traffic authorities has become “an organisational and societal problem” requiring urgent political and institutional action.

The authors of the report, leading policing and governance researchers David Bruce and Gareth Newham, say corruption has become so deeply embedded that restoring integrity in policing is now a matter of national urgency.

The researchers highlight the alarming public perception of police misconduct.

The Human Sciences Research Council’s data shows trust in the police has remained “exceptionally low”, with only 22% of South Africans expressing trust in SAPS in 2022, 2023 and 2024/25.

Meanwhile, 62% reported having no trust at all. Citing the 2022 Afrobarometer survey, the authors note that six in 10 citizens (61%) say that ‘most’ or ‘all’ police are corrupt,” a reflection of a “severe breakdown in trust”.

“Public trust in the police is necessary for community cooperation and, therefore, for police to reduce crime,” said Bruce and Newham, warning that the trust deficit directly undermines policing effectiveness.

Leadership failures: ‘deeply destructive’

The report points to repeated scandals involving high-ranking officers as a key factor eroding SAPS culture.

According to the authors, “corruption involving senior police officers has a deeply destructive impact on organisational culture”, often filtering down to legitimise misconduct among rank-and-file members.

They add that senior officials implicated in wrongdoing frequently use their authority to obstruct accountability, noting several cases where leaders allegedly interfered with internal investigations.

One corruption investigator quoted in the report describes the environment starkly: “Holding senior officers accountable is an intrinsically difficult task in an environment that is extremely hostile to its objectives.”

Bruce and Newham describe SAPS disciplinary processes as fundamentally ineffective.

With roughly 80% of disciplinary cases resulting in no meaningful sanction, they argue that accountability structures have “failed to deter misconduct”.

A major contributing factor is the internal “code of silence”. “SAPS corruption investigators say they receive few, if any, internal reports of police corruption.”

One officer told investigators: “I’m just notifying you, but I can’t make a formal statement.”

The authors argue this “negative solidarity” shields corrupt members and isolates whistleblowers.

Anti-corruption investigations in policing remain scattered across SAPS’s Anti-Corruption Investigation Unit (ACIU), the Hawks, IPID, and metro oversight bodies — a structure the authors describe as “fragmented and incoherent”.

The ACIU, they note, is “substantially under-resourced”, and its investigators often face internal hostility. “Current measures appear inadequate given the scale of the problem.”

Civilian complicity is part of the problem

The report emphasises that corruption is sustained not only by police behaviour but also by civilians who participate in it.

“Many civilians willingly pay, or even initiate, corrupt transactions,” the authors note, particularly in traffic enforcement where opportunities for bribery are common.

They point to Stats SA findings showing that 25% of people who experienced bribery said they did not report it because they “benefited”, while another 25% believed reporting was pointless because it was “common practice”.

The way forward

The report outlines a series of reforms that the authors argue are both achievable and urgently needed:

• Professionalise leadership:
  “SAPS top management must integrate high ethical standards into performance management,” including strengthening lifestyle audits of senior officials.
  
• Strengthen the ACIU:
  They argue for transforming it into an autonomous national unit. “A national unit is more practical to protect from pressure and interference in high-ranking cases.”
  
• Improve coordination between agencies:
  The authors call for a unified memorandum of understanding to ensure consistent reporting and information-sharing.
  
• Make discipline transparent:
  They propose a public annual report on corruption allegations and outcomes across SAPS, metro/traffic police, IPID, DPCI and IDAC.
  
• Empower whistleblowing:
  Internal and external reporting systems must be strengthened and publicised.

“When members of the public encounter a SAPS member, they should be able to assume that this is a person who can be trusted and respected,” said Bruce and Newham.

But, they caution, the gap between that ideal and current reality is vast, and closing it will require leadership willing to confront corruption at every level.