Murder and robbery unit returns to SAPS
The South African Police Service has re-established its murder and robbery unit to investigate and solve these crimes.
This was confirmed by National Police Commissioner General Khehla Sitole during an interview with Enca yesterday.
“I have realised that the conviction rate is not at the level of the expectation of the community, this is not what the public want to see.
“Now chairing that concern we then decided to let us beef up the capacity correctly.
In an interview with the 24-hour TV news channel, Sitole said the murder and robbery unit should operate at the task team level pending the finalisation of the work study processes.
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The Brixton murder and robbery unit was disbanded in 2001, after its members were accused of torturing suspects during investigations.
During last month’s release of the latest national crime statistics, Police Minister General Bheki Cele confirmed that the country’s murder rate has increased by 1.4% between April 2019 and March 2020.
Over 21 000 people were killed during that period.