Overloaded detectives: Is justice delayed or denied?

When the auditor-general, Tsakani Maluleke, tells us that some detectives carry workloads of between 600 and 800 dockets, how can we reasonably expect one detective to deliver justice under such pressure?

The national numbers begin to answer the question of why so many South Africans struggle to access justice.

How do we expect justice to move efficiently when those through whom we access it are themselves overwhelmed?

A detective cannot investigate hundreds of cases simultaneously, gather evidence, interview witnesses, follow leads and prepare dockets with the attention each matter deserves.

We demand justice from a system whose front-line investigators are being asked to carry workloads that would challenge even the most adequately resourced institution.

Somewhere between the crime and the courtroom, justice is buried under paperwork.

Access to justice begins at the police station, through the police officers who receive our complaints.

It begins with hoping the responding officer responds appropriately, takes the matter seriously and records the complaint.

From there, the matter is assigned to an investigating officer, whose responsibility is to gather evidence, interview witnesses, follow leads and build a docket capable of surviving prosecutorial scrutiny.

That docket must ultimately reach the prosecuting authority with sufficient evidence to support a prosecution.

This is the pathway through which an ordinary citizen accesses justice.

But how can that pathway function effectively when the person responsible for moving a case through it is buried beneath hundreds of other dockets?

What, then, is the expectation of these officers?

What quality of work can reasonably be demanded from detectives carrying hundreds of dockets at a time?

We expect thorough investigations, properly prepared dockets, witnesses followed up, evidence secured and cases moved efficiently towards prosecution.

Yet we must also ask whether these overwhelming workloads create the very cracks that criminals exploit.

Are these not the same vulnerabilities through which criminality can infiltrate the South African Police Service itself, allowing dishonest officers to manipulate an already burdened system?

The extraordinary number of dockets handled by individual detectives may be the dealbreaker between justice delayed and justice denied.