The Portfolio Committee on Police has discovered that over 7 000 dockets in the Free State have been pushed aside instead of being investigated. The 7 000 figure comes as a shock to the committee, as the findings indicate that this happened in just one month. This has raised concern as to how many dockets per year have been archived instead of being investigated. Member of the committee and shadow Minister of Police, Dianne Kohler-Barnard, says this may be the actual reason why the province’s crime statistics appeared to be positive.

"People are sitting at home with the hope that their cases are going to be solved, meanwhile, dockets are just lying in the archive and they are not being investigated by anyone. This is one of the most shocking things discovered on this tour. The province looks quite wonderful in terms of crime statistics because they have filed less recorded crime," she said.

The information emerged at the committee’s four day oversight visit across the province, which started on Tuesday. The aim of the visit was to assess the province’s key policing issues.

SELLWANE KHAKHAU

sellwane@centralmediagroup.co.za