A Detective Service for Cape Town

By Dr Dirk Brand LLD

Independent Legal Consultant, Cape Town

The announcement on 15 July 2026 by Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis that Cape Town should develop an own detective capacity for the metro police is noteworthy for various reasons.  In view of the high crime rate in many parts of Cape Town and the need to ensure a safe environment for everyone, strengthening the policing capacity in the metropolitan area is crucial. Promotion of a safe and healthy environment is one of the objects of local government (sec. 152 of the Constitution).  Some people might argue that this announcement is a sign of the political contestation between the Metropolitan Council and the National Government, or between the DA and the ANC.  Whatever the motivation for this initiative is, an important question should be answered, namely what the constitutional and legal basis for an investigative unit within the municipal police is.

The allocation of policing powers was a much contested issue during the constitutional negotiations in the Constitutional Assembly in Cape Town.  The result of the negotiations is what we currently have in sections 205 – 208 of the Constitution.  The establishment of a municipal police service is specifically envisioned by section 206(7), which reads:

“National legislation must provide a framework for the establishment, powers, functions and control of municipal police services.”

The South African Police Services Act, 1995, is the enabling national legislation which provides the framework for the establishment, powers, functions and control of municipal police services.  Sec. 64A of the Act stipulates that the provincial member of the executive council, i.e. MEC for policing, may approve an application for the establishment of a municipal police service if a range of conditions are met.  One of these conditions is that such a municipal police service should improve effective policing in that part of the province. The establishment of a municipal police service must officially be made public by a notice in the Gazette.  The powers of a municipal police service as defined in section 64E of the Act are:

1. Traffic policing, subject to any legislation relating to road traffic;

2. The policing of municipal by-laws and regulations which are the responsibility of the municipality in question; and

3. The prevention of crime.

According to this provision the scope of municipal policing powers is confined to these three areas.  While the first two seem to have a demarcated scope, ‘prevention of crime’ is not defined in this Act and could arguably include some form of intelligence gathering and outreach to communities to prevent crime.

Members of a municipal police service have the powers conferred upon or assigned to them by law.  The national Minister of Police may prescribe that any power conferred upon a member of the South African Police Service by the Police Services Act or any other law may be exercised by a member of a municipal police service.  This means that the scope of powers of members of a municipal police force is not static but may change over time.  The members of a municipal police service are designated as peace officers, which gives them powers of arrest in terms of section 40 of the Criminal Procedure Act 51 of 1977, but no investigative powers are assigned to them.

It therefore appears that the legal scope for an investigative capacity to be established in a municipal police service is limited and depends on a conferral or assignment of powers by the national Minister to such a municipal police service.  The City of Cape Town should therefore engage the national Minister of Police about such an assignment. An argument which the City of Cape Town could raise is that in order to fulfil the condition of ‘improving effective policing in that part of the province’ investigative powers should be strengthened, and one way of doing it is to assign such powers to the municipal police service.  From a national perspective a counter argument could perhaps be that a proper coordinated investigative service is necessary to enhance the chances of successful prosecution, and that it is therefore necessary to locate such function within the SA Police Services, but the low rate of successful convictions in all criminal cases casts a shadow on this argument. 

It is thus an open question if this initiative by Cape Town will succeed or not, but what is clear is that there is a dire need to improve effective policing, not only in Cape Town but in the whole of the country.