An evaluation of the South African Police Service’s moral right to hold power in the Mankweng area

Abstract

Contemporary policing in South Africa is similarly beset by some glaring fault lines that are branded by high levels of criminality, power abuses and misconduct within the police ranks. Though it is difficult to quantify how the related issues are perceived by the majority of South Africans, this widespread challenge effectively diminishes the police’s moral right to hold power within communities. Furthermore, the Constitution of the Republic of South African Act (No. 108 of 1996) places the South African Police Service (SAPS) in the frontline against crime and obliges it to protect and secure the inhabitant of the republic and their property, this reads in accordance with Section 205(3) of this Act. However, this will be effective only if the SAPS management consists of employees who are trained professionals with appropriate proficiency and whose integrity is beyond approach. In the light of growing concern about ethics and morality in South Africa, this study present that it is important to gain a better understanding of the natural progression of moral reasoning that comes with maturity. This can be accomplished by evaluating the South African Police Service’s moral right to hold power in the Mankweng area as this study attempt. This qualitative study adopted phenomenography research design to purposively explore perceptions of 20 community members and 5 SAPS management in the Mankweng area. Data was collected using the face-to-face semi-structured phenomenological interview and the data was analysed and interpreted, with the adoption of Textual Analysis (TA). This study establishes that there is no moral alertness of using outreach, educational skills and awareness campaigns by the local SAPS in collaborations with community members and there is a decrease in the resilience of criminal victimisation within the community; coupled with lack of strength regarding the relationship amongst safety and security stakeholders and lack of information sharing about crime fighting initiatives within the community and the police. For the conclusion and recommendations: police actions and an increase of unappealing practices has raised a number of safety concerns among South African citizens, neighbouring countries and perhaps international community observers as well and it is recommended that collaboratively working on these findings can enhance policing in the communal level.