19 August 2026
The Hawks are hoping to recruit 315 investigators from within the SA Police Service. Archive photo: Ashraf Hendricks
South Africa’s top policing unit responsible for combating organised crime and corruption is severely short of investigators.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), known as the Hawks, has 2,515 policing staff vacancies. Of these, about 1,500 are investigative positions, according to Hawks acting head Siphesihle Nkosi. Yet when it comes to administrative staff, it has 192 surplus staff.
This is according to a breakdown submitted to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) on Tuesday, 18 August.
At the sitting the Hawks, Special Investigating Unit (SIU), and the National Prosecuting Authority jointly updated MPs on proclamations, referrals, and prosecutions. ActionSA MP Alan Beesley noted that while the Hawks had a vacancy rate of nearly 50%, the VIP protection unit servicing cabinet members and other government officials received more money than the Hawks who looked after 60-million South Africans.
Beesley said the VIP protection unit had a budget of R4-billion and the Hawks R2.7-billion.
Although the presentation detailing vacancy rates across the Hawks’ provincial offices and head office was not screened during the eight-hour session on Tuesday, it was shared to MPs and formed a significant part of the discussion, along with questions on the high number of cases which were not prosecuted.
Explaining the vacancies, Nkosi said skilled investigators were highly sought after, both in the private sector and within other public sector units.
“It’s difficult to keep individuals within the investigation space when there are better opportunities elsewhere,” said Nkosi.
In his submission to Scopa he said the Hawks were advertising 315 posts internally “to recruit experienced police investigators across critical operational environments”.
But this meant critical investigative power was lost elsewhere within the police. SAPS was hoping to fill 250 entry-level posts and 17 senior management posts.
He said SAPS was required in its performance plan to capacitate the Hawks, and people with specific skills were also recruited on contract.
Capacity was specifically lacking in the Hawks when it came to investigating cybercrime. There are 73 investigators with the necessary skills across all nine provinces and at head office.
For complex investigations, a number of specialised skills were needed in each case, which is why forensic firms were often contracted as “a fully-fledged forensic firm has the full complement of multiple skills”. He said their reports were also credible in court.
“We have a panel of suppliers who are obviously vetted.”
In his submission, Nkosi said 22 cases were currently outsourced to external forensic accounting firms, and 10 had been outsourced to the Financial Intelligence Centre.
Since the beginning of the 2024/25 financial year, about R42-million was spent on outsourced investigations. He said the Hawks had been given R75-million this financial year to strengthen their forensic accounting investigative capacity.
Since 2011 the SIU has referred 5,944 matters to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA). As repeatedly explained to MPs, not every referral resulted in its own case docket, as a number of referrals could be placed in a single docket. In the Gauteng division, which at 2,655 had by far the most referrals, there were 206 registered dockets – an average of more than 10 referrals per docket. Of these, 119 were still under investigation, 40 were awaiting a decision by the NPA, and 12 were in court. The remaining 35 dockets were being dealt with by SAPS in the lower courts.
But only three of the 206 dockets had led to convictions so far, and 14 had been dismissed as nolle prosequi [decline to pursue].
Of the 516 finalised criminal matters across the provinces, 263 – more than half – resulted in nolle prosequi.
EFF MP Ntombovuyo Mente-Nkuna took issue with the number of nolle prosequi outcomes in the Eastern Cape, zeroing in on Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality where the SIU had referred five matters, resulting in 14 dockets, all of which the NPA declined to prosecute.
“In these municipalities, money is paid for services, but no service is delivered … The mayor of Buffalo City will say ‘but the law does not find us guilty’,” said Mente-Nkuna.
“We can’t refer something that will not get prosecuted.”
NPA head Andy Mothibi said the legislation under which the SIU operates stated that if an investigation pointed to criminal action, then “at that point” it needed to be referred to the NPA. But when going through the evidence presented, the NPA might decide the case did not meet the requirements to prosecute. The matter might then be referred to the Hawks or SAPS for further investigation.
The problem, said Mothibi, was that the NPA didn’t have investigative powers, which was an historic problem from the disbanding of the Scorpions (Directorate of Special Operations) in 2008, who were able to investigate within the NPA. The lack of investigative powers in the NPA (and lack of prosecutorial power within the SIU) was “a conundrum”.
He said while there were high level reasons for cases not being prosecuted, the NPA could check the detailed reasons for the high number of nolle prosequi decisions and report back to Scopa.
However, he said if the decision not to prosecute was made after being investigated by the Hawks, “then we have a problem”.
High level reasons given for not prosecuting were no prima facie case proving criminality, and insufficient evidence for successful prosecution. In some cases, there was not enough evidence to prove gross negligence in terms of the Public Finance Management Act. Often in these cases, officials were subject to disciplinary procedures instead.
MPs also took issue with the length of time some investigations took. The investigation into corruption surrounding President Nelson Mandela’s funeral took 13 years, said Scopa chair Songezo Zibi.
Zibi said he was concerned there were detectives or officials who had been “incentivised” to “slow-walk cases”.
“Some of these cases are really petty corruption and shouldn’t be complicated. The Madiba funeral is not the same as Denel. I suspect some misconduct somewhere. There can’t be wholesale failure.”
Referring to the lack of convictions in some cases that had numerous dockets, he said: “Man, zero is a lot.”
Head of investigations at the Investigating Directorate Against Corruption (IDAC) Matthews Sesoko said many cases dragged on due to Stalingrad tactics employed by defence attorneys. Hearings also depended on availability of the courts.
Eastern Cape director of public prosecutions, Samkelo Mtwana, said the Mandela funeral case was in court, and the next hearing would take place in January 2027.
Despite these issues, the SIU and Asset Forfeiture Unit told MPs they had clawed back R11,5-billion for the National Treasury, with contracts worth R38.1-billion being set aside by the SIU. So far, the law enforcement agencies have secured 141 convictions across the provinces.
