CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Lawyers to help Western Cape cops sharpen court dockets

A police station is often where a criminal case is either strengthened or quietly weakened beyond repair. Defective statements, gaps in evidence and poorly prepared dockets can unravel prosecutions long before a case reaches court, leaving victims without justice and communities increasingly distrustful of the police.

On Tuesday, 18 August, Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and Police Oversight and Community Safety MEC Anroux Marais formally launched the Lawyers in Police Stations Project, a partnership between the Western Cape government, SAPS and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) in Mitchells Plain.

Under the project, lawyers will be deployed to police stations to help officers improve statements, evidence and docket preparation while keeping investigations firmly with SAPS.

The initiative comes at a critical time for Mitchells Plain, where residents remain under siege from gang violence, there are regular gang-related shootings, and witnesses are often reluctant to come forward for fear of reprisal.

Legal practitioner Malikah Schaffers will be based at Mitchells Plain Police Station for three years, mentoring officers on statement-taking, evidence and case preparation, without taking over investigations.

Winde said the project began at Grassy Park Police Station in March 2025 after the precinct was identified as carrying a heavy burden of serious and organised crime. An independent evaluation found improvements in investigative processes, prompting the expansion to Mitchells Plain.

Plans are also under way to expand the model to Stellenbosch and other locations. Winde said the initiative sought to strengthen police capacity and ensure arrests translated into stronger dockets and successful prosecutions.

Winde underlined that the overall objective was not to take over or interfere in police functions. Instead, the stated objective was to strengthen officers’ technical capacity and the skills of station personnel, and to improve the quality of policing.

The initiative recognises a fundamental reality: effective policing begins at police-station level. Far too many police stations across the Western Cape and the country are facing serious resourcing constraints which often affect service delivery.

“While law enforcement agencies must work hard to prevent crime and increase arrests, this must be followed by successful prosecutions. Through this project we are tangibly offering assistance to officers to build up watertight cases,” Winde said.

The project also highlights a deeper problem in the criminal justice chain: an arrest is only the beginning of a criminal case.

If statements are defective, evidence is poorly managed or investigative procedures are not followed, cases can collapse, denying victims justice.

The need for the initiative is underscored by persistent weaknesses in the criminal justice system.

Between April and September 2023, the Western Cape Department of Police Oversight and Community Safety’s Court Watching Briefs unit found that 243 cases monitored across 25 courts and linked to 58 SAPS stations were struck off the roll because of SAPS inefficiencies.