Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Lisa Schickerling MP.
– IPID recorded an alleged rape involving a police officer every three days
– 116 alleged rape cases against SAPS officers in 2025/26
– DA demands accountability from Acting Minister Cachalia
It is unacceptable that rape cases are being brought against active police officers at a rate of one every three days.
The DA calls on police leadership to immediately suspend all officers accused of rape, gender-based violence and femicide (GBVF) and femicide, ensure that these allegations are investigated speedily and thoroughly, and immediately dismiss any officer found guilty.
IPID’s latest figures show that 332 GBVF-related cases involved police officers in 2025/26, including 116 alleged rape cases. That means an alleged rape involving a police officer was recorded by IPID every three days during the year.
The 116 alleged rape cases are up from 95 the previous year, with IPID reporting that 72 allegedly involved officers who were on duty. Once every 5 days a police officer who is on duty is allegedly committing a rape, while on duty.
I will write to the Police’s Acting Minister Firoz Cachalia calling for him to take responsibility for serious improvements in how SAPS vets, disciplines and deals with officers accused of these serious crimes. We need to see an overhaul in the culture, leadership systems, and management of officers to address this, along with criminal prosecution of the offenders themselves.
Cachalia must restore law and order internally in the police.
The people of South Africa cannot be expected to trust police officers to protect them from violence while officers themselves are accused of rape and other forms of GBVF.
And police officers who do crime themselves, must know that they will be prosecuted and will be punished.
My letter also requires Act. Min. Cachalia to provide a full account of the action taken against officers implicated in these cases, including how many have been suspended, dismissed, convicted or remain in active service.
It cannot be that facing a serious scourge of murder and rape of women, police themselves are implicated in one rape every three days. This must be addressed immediately.
The DA will continue to use every parliamentary oversight mechanism available to ensure that SAPS officers accused of GBVF are held accountable and that serious allegations are properly investigated and acted upon. South Africans cannot be expected to trust the police to protect them from rape and other violent crimes when police officers themselves are implicated in these offences. There can be no double standard: those entrusted to uphold the law must be held to the highest standards of accountability, with urgent action, transparency and consequences for those found guilty.