Major South African city sees eleventh escape from police custody in two months

The DA has raised concerns about the eleventh detainee who has managed to escape from the South African Police Service (SAPS) custody in Cape Town over the past two months.

This comes after a suspect who was arrested on Main Road in Green Point managed to escape through a bathroom window at the Sea Point police station.

The detainee, who was being held in the station’s cells, reportedly asked to use the bathroom, where he was left alone. This is despite the room having no burglar bars on the windows.

While the detainee had been arrested for selling puppies, Chief Inspector Jaco Pieterse says that it could have been a murderer who had escaped police custody.

“I am deeply disappointed and frankly stunned by the sheer carelessness displayed by SAPS in this incident,” he said.

“We have been informed that this is the second escape from the same station in the past week – it is completely unacceptable.”

The escapee was rearrested on Tuesday morning.

In October, six prisoners between the ages of 21 and 35, awaiting trial for housebreaking and the illegal possession of firearms, managed to escape from Wynberg Magistrates’ Court.

The prisoners were meant to return to Pollsmoor Prison; however, officers found their cells empty when it came time for departure. All have since been returned to police custody.

That same month, three prisoners managed to escape from the Strand Magistrates’ Court after police found their cells empty with no signs of forced breakout.

The last of the escapees was apprehended at the end of November.

Then, in mid-November, a 17-year-old awaiting trial escaped from the holding cells at the Bellville Magistrates’ Court. He was rearrested in Durbanville a few days later.

DA National Council of Provinces Member on Security and Justice Nicholas Gotsell said this is a deeply troubling pattern, and indicated frustration with the Western Cape Provincial Police Commissioner for failing to provide accountability for these escapes.

“Yet every week, another ‘escape’ occurs, always from secure precincts that are not construction sites, but long-established police stations with standard infrastructure and daily operational protocols,” he said.

“The public deserves to know why detainees can simply disappear from facilities that are meant to safeguard suspects, protect communities and uphold the integrity of the criminal justice chain.”

Newsday has contacted the Western Cape police and will add comment once it is provided.

Police under-resourced

Police Minister Firoz Cachalia recently revealed that several of Cape Town’s police stations are operating below the required officer capacity.

This followed a question regarding police stations in South Africa’s top 35 crime hotspots, of which only seven are at or above 100% police officer capacity.

The Western Cape has eight of the top 35 stations. Of these, only one has seen an increase in staff capacity over the past five years – Harare. This increased from 104% in 2020/21 to 123% in 2024/25.

On the other hand, Nyanga, which is the police precinct with one of the highest murder rates in the country, saw its capacity drop from 105% to 83%.

According to the Institute for Security Studies, the area had a murder rate of 157 per 100,000 people for the 2023/24 year.

However, Nyanga is not the only police department to drop below its granted capacity. Only the Mitchells Plain and Cape Town Central departments were not at capacity in 2020/21, at 91% and 88% respectively.

The rest – Delft, Khayelitsha, Kraaifontein, and Mfuleni – have all experienced a 10 percentage point decline in capacity over the five years.

The most significant exodus of officers occurred at the Delft Police Station, where the capacity dropped from 118% to 84% over the five years.

This is despite the Western Cape police spokesperson, Andre Traut, stating that the South African Police Service (SAPS) is adequately resourced to tackle the ongoing gang-related and other violent crime in the province.

“We have the situation under control and have the necessary resources to curb the crime in the Western Cape,” Traut said in an interview on 13 November 2025.